Start with the five-company bench contrast before outreach
Scale AI 89, Hugging Face 62, Databricks 37, OpenAI 28, Cohere 20: five records add to 236. MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist, and Research Scientist stay outside this page's scope.
The ML seat is Machine Learning Engineer, not an invented MLOps ladder
The seat is spelled-out Machine Learning Engineer only; Senior joins the same family. Five exclusive homepage records total 236 as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Denominator: sum of current Machine Learning Engineer profiles across five exclusive company homepage records, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Scale AI 89 on its exclusive company record anchors the ML pack
Scale AI sets the top of the range. Its own exclusive company homepage record, www.scale.com, carries 89 current Machine Learning Engineer profiles as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17). Nobody else in the pack comes close, and because the record is exclusive to Scale AI, that 89 is not inflated by acquired or parent brands.
Denominator: current profiles on the Scale AI exclusive homepage record (www.scale.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Hugging Face 62 follows on the open-model company record
Hugging Face follows on its own exclusive company homepage record, www.huggingface.co, with 62 current Machine Learning Engineer profiles as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17). Against Scale AI, this rung is narrower under the same seat definition; the difference is bench depth rather than a different scope.
Denominator: current profiles on the Hugging Face exclusive homepage record (www.huggingface.co) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Databricks 37 sits in the platform middle of the ML pack
Databricks holds the mid band with 37 current profiles on www.databricks.com, and OpenAI follows with 28 on www.openai.com, both as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17). The mid band is often the most under-read rung.
Denominator: current profiles on Databricks (www.databricks.com) and OpenAI (www.openai.com) exclusive homepage records matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
OpenAI 28 and Cohere 20 close the frontier/vendor tail
Cohere closes the tail with 20 current Machine Learning Engineer profiles on its own exclusive company homepage record, www.cohere.com, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17). A tail bench is not a dismissal: for hiring moves that need a precise seat picture, 20 is still a reachable, comparable pool.
Denominator: current profiles on the Cohere exclusive homepage record (www.cohere.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
The pack total of 236 is five exclusive ML-company records added
The pack total is 236 current Machine Learning Engineer profiles, the sum of the five exclusive company homepage records: 89 + 62 + 37 + 28 + 20 = 236, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17). Because the five records do not overlap on the seat being counted, the total is a clean addition.
Denominator: sum of current profiles across five exclusive company homepage records, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
MLOps, data science, and research titles stay outside the 236
MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist, and Research Scientist titles remain outside the 236. They may sit beside Machine Learning Engineer on the same org chart, but the pack counts only the one spelled-out seat, so the total stays traceable to five exclusive company homepage records as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Denominator: sum of current Machine Learning Engineer profiles across five exclusive company homepage records; MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist, and Research Scientist sit outside this denominator, as of 2026-09-17 PT (9/17).
Methodology
Counting rule for this chapter. Every figure is a count of current profiles on one named company's own exclusive homepage record — Scale AI, Hugging Face, Databricks, OpenAI, Cohere — never a rolled-up parent entity. The seat is kept deliberately narrow: spelled-out Machine Learning Engineer, with Senior counted in the same family. All numbers share a single as-of date, 2026-09-17 PT. Source: Metix AI.
| Metric | Value | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Scale AI | 89 | current profiles on the Scale AI exclusive homepage record (www.scale.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer |
| Hugging Face | 62 | current profiles on the Hugging Face exclusive homepage record (www.huggingface.co) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer |
| Databricks | 37 | current profiles on the Databricks exclusive homepage record (www.databricks.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer |
| OpenAI | 28 | current profiles on the OpenAI exclusive homepage record (www.openai.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer |
| Cohere | 20 | current profiles on the Cohere exclusive homepage record (www.cohere.com) matching Machine Learning Engineer / Senior Machine Learning Engineer |
Ask Metix to run the same map on your names
The published pack is fixed at 236 across the five exclusive company homepage records; the same single-seat scope can be applied to a different company record for your next hiring decision.
FAQ
- Why these five companies and not other Machine Learning Engineer employers?
- Because each of the five — Scale AI, Hugging Face, Databricks, OpenAI, Cohere — has its own exclusive company homepage record, so its bench can be counted directly. Together they hold 236 current Machine Learning Engineer profiles across the five exclusive company homepage records as of 2026-09-17 PT.
- Does the total of 236 include MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist, or Research Scientist titles?
- No. The 236 is the sum of current Machine Learning Engineer profiles on the five exclusive company homepage records (89 + 62 + 37 + 28 + 20) as of 2026-09-17 PT; MLOps Engineer, Data Scientist, and Research Scientist titles are counted outside this seat.
- Why does Scale AI sit at 89 while Cohere sits at 20?
- The counting rule is identical for both: current Machine Learning Engineer profiles on each company's own exclusive homepage record as of 2026-09-17 PT. Scale AI's record holds 89 and Cohere's holds 20, so the gap reflects bench depth rather than a different scope.
- Can this same Machine Learning Engineer seat cut be remade for a company outside the published 236-person pack?
- Yes. The published ML engineering peer pack stays fixed at 236 across the five exclusive homepage records as of 2026-09-17 PT, and the same spelled-out Machine Learning Engineer seat can be applied to another company record on request.
Request the ML engineering peer pack (five names · 236 current people)
The same methodology can export mapped current Machine Learning Engineer profiles at Scale AI, Hugging Face, Databricks, OpenAI, Cohere, or rerun a custom peer pack on your target companies.
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