AI engineering
Builds the systems that put models into production and keeps them there.
Machine learning engineer is the closest published title, and the broad AI reading gives the floor the whole market sits on. Neither is the same job: AI engineering today is mostly integration work, and the advertised titles have not caught up.
The published figures
2 titles stand behind this discipline. They are not the same job as each other, and none is exactly this discipline.
Machine Learning Engineer
as the source names it| Basis | Lower (10th) | Middle | Upper (90th) | Sample | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract, per day | £500 | £575 | £738 | 63 rates quoted | thin |
| Permanent, per year | £48,750 | £76,000 | £111,250 | 36 salaries quoted | thin |
A small sample on both sides. Thirty-six quoted salaries is not enough to read a percentile confidently, and the permanent median fell year on year on that thin sample rather than because the job got cheaper.
Outside London the permanent middle is £65,000, against £76,000 UK-wide.
Artificial Intelligence
as the source names it| Basis | Lower (10th) | Middle | Upper (90th) | Sample | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract, per day | £400 | £551 | £788 | 2,974 rates quoted | strong |
| Permanent, per year | £40,000 | £71,000 | £111,250 | 5,017 salaries quoted | strong |
The broadest reading available. It covers every advertisement mentioning AI, so it spans research posts and jobs that mention AI in passing. Useful as a floor, useless as a target.
Outside London the permanent middle is £65,000, against £71,000 UK-wide.
As a fractional engagement
Built on £551 a day, the lowest advertised middle of the titles above. Lowest, not highest, because the number that matters to a buyer setting a budget is the one they are least likely to be surprised by.
| Commitment | Days a month | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| One day a week | 4 | £2,204 | £26,448 |
| Two days a week | 8 | £4,408 | £52,896 |
| Three days a week | 12 | £6,612 | £79,344 |
£551 a day multiplied by the commitment, and nothing else. No seniority uplift, because any uplift would be invented.
Why this one is hard to judge
A demo proves nothing. What matters is what they did when it failed under real load.
That is the reason a rate alone tells you very little here. Two people quoting the same day rate for this work can be worth wildly different amounts to you, and the difference does not show up in either of their profiles.
Figures from IT Jobs Watch, UK contract rates and IT Jobs Watch, UK permanent salaries, six months to 8 August 2026, read on 2026-08-08. They are rates and salaries advertised, not paid.