AI Engineer Career Guide 2026: Skills, Salaries, and How to Break In

The roles overlap, but AI Engineers tend to span LLM work, RAG, agents, deployment, and safety, while ML Engineers may go deeper on traditional modeling and data pipelines in larger teams.

No. Employers care about evidence projects, evaluations, and clear trade‑offs. Bootcamps plus a strong portfolio are common routes, especially when you can show working demos and metrics.

Many learners reach interviews in 3–6 months with focus and guidance. The key is two deployed projects, consistent evaluation, and weekly interview practice supported by mentors and peers.