Machine learning engineer salary in Australia
If you are looking for a single official figure for a machine learning engineer salary in Australia, the short answer is that the Australian Bureau of Statistics does not publish a separate category for this role. The closest industry grouping is Professional, scientific & technical services, which includes software engineers, data scientists, and related occupations. According to the ABS Average Weekly Earnings survey for May 2026, full-time adults in that industry earned an average of $2,389.60 per week in ordinary time earnings, or about $124,259 a year. That is well above the national full-time adult average of $2,083.70 per week ($108,352 a year).
Take-home pay after tax
To give a resident take-home sketch, we apply the 2026–27 tax rates and the 2% Medicare levy. For a person earning the Professional, scientific & technical services average of $124,259:
- Tax on the first $18,200: $0
- Tax on the next $26,800 (up to $45,000): 15% = $4,020
- Tax on the remaining $79,259 (from $45,001 to $124,259): 30% = $23,777.70
- Total income tax: $27,797.70
- Medicare levy (2% of $124,259): $2,485.18
- Total deductions: $30,282.88
- Estimated take-home pay: $93,976 a year (about $1,807 a week)
For comparison, someone earning the national full-time average of $108,352 would pay:
- Tax on $18,200: $0
- Tax on $26,800 at 15%: $4,020
- Tax on $63,352 at 30%: $19,005.60
- Total income tax: $23,025.60
- Medicare levy: $2,167.04
- Total deductions: $25,192.64
- Estimated take-home pay: $83,159 a year (about $1,599 a week)
These are simplified calculations that do not include the tax-free threshold, the low-income tax offset, or the Medicare levy reduction for lower incomes. The actual amount may vary depending on your circumstances.
How it compares to other benchmarks
The Professional, scientific & technical services average sits well above the national full-time median of about $90,532 and the all-employees median of about $74,100 (ABS Employee Earnings, August 2025). It also far exceeds the national minimum wage of $26.44 per hour, which works out to $1,004.90 a week or $52,255 a year on a 38-hour week (Fair Work, from 1 July 2026).
For context, the ABS also reports that the median hourly earnings for Professionals were $64.50 in August 2025, and the median weekly earnings for all employees were $1,436. A machine learning engineer would typically be classified as a Professional, so their hourly rate is likely above that median.
What the data sources say
The figures in this article come from the ABS Average Weekly Earnings survey for May 2026 and the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours release for August 2025. The national minimum wage is set by Fair Work and updated each July. The tax brackets are from the ATO for 2026–27.
Where to go from here
If you want to see how your own salary compares to the national average, you can Place a salary on the line and see where it sits. To understand how the ABS collects these figures, read How the figures are set. For more on state-by-state differences, see States and territories.