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About This Role
At T-Mobile, we invest in YOU! Our Total Rewards Package ensures that employees get the same big love we give our customers. All team members receive a competitive base salary and compensation package - this is Total Rewards. Employees enjoy multiple wealth-building opportunities through our annual stock grant, employee stock purchase plan, 401(k), and access to free, year-round money coaches. That’s how we’re UNSTOPPABLE for our employees!
The AI & Modeling Relations Manager is the primary liaison between the business and T-Mobile's AI Center of Excellence (COE), responsible for translating enterprise AI capabilities into adopted, governed, and cost-effective solutions for the business unit. This role requires fluency in modern AI technology and terminology — large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic AI, prompt engineering, machine learning operations (MLOps)/large language model operations (LLMOps), and responsible AI practices — to credibly partner with COE architects and data scientists while advocating for business needs. The manager owns the intake, evaluation, governance alignment, and financial stewardship of AI initiatives sourced through or coordinated with the COE, ensuring the business unit adopts AI responsibly, efficiently, and at the pace the organization can absorb.Responsibilities:
AI COE Relationship Management
- Serve as the single point of contact between the business unit and the AI Center of Excellence, managing intake of AI use cases, prioritization, and delivery timelines.
- Build and maintain a trusted working relationship with COE leadership, architects, data scientists, and ML engineers to ensure business priorities are represented in the COE roadmap.
- Translate business problems into well-formed AI use case briefs and translate COE technical capabilities and constraints back into business-friendly guidance.
- Facilitate regular governance/steering meetings, roadmap reviews, and escalation paths between the business unit and the COE.
AI Governance & Compliance·
- Ensure all AI initiatives sourced through the COE comply with enterprise responsible AI principles, model risk management standards, and data classification/privacy requirements.
- Partner with Legal, Privacy, Security, and Risk teams to support AI impact assessments, model documentation, and audit readiness.
- Maintain a current inventory of AI/ML models and tools in use within the business unit, including their approval and governance status.
AI Vendor & Tool Evaluation
- Partner with the COE to evaluate new AI platforms, foundation models, and third-party AI vendors (e.g., LLM providers, vector database platforms, AI agent frameworks) against business requirements.
- Coordinate proof-of-concept (POC) and pilot evaluations, defining success criteria, evaluation rubrics, and go/no-go recommendations.
- Stay current on the evolving AI vendor landscape (foundation model providers, AI copilots, agentic platforms) and advise the business on build-vs-buy decisions in partnership with the COE.
Business Unit AI Enablement
- Identify and prioritize high-value AI use cases within the business unit, in partnership with COE data scientists and solution architects.
- Drive adoption of COE-delivered AI capabilities (copilots, chatbots, predictive models, automation agents) through training, change management, and communication.
- Act as the business unit's champion for AI literacy, helping teams understand what AI can (and cannot) responsibly do.
Qualifications:
Required:
- Bachelor's Degree plus 5 years of related work experience OR Advanced degree with 3 years of related experience
- Acceptable areas of study include Finance, Economics, Mathematics. Statistics or related field
- 5+ years of experience in technology program/product management, vendor management, or a related cross-functional leadership role.
- Demonstrated working knowledge of AI/ML concepts and terminology, including large language models (LLMs), generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and agentic AI.
- Experience managing relationships with technical teams, centers of excellence, or shared services organizations.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical AI concepts for non-technical business stakeholders and vice versa.
- Key AI Literacy Expectations: + Foundation models & LLMs — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama — and how they're selected/deployed. + Generative AI vs. predictive/traditional ML vs. agentic AI. + Prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). + Embeddings and vector databases. + MLOps/LLMOps, model monitoring, and model drift. + Responsible AI: bias, fairness, explainability, hallucination, guardrails. + AI governance and risk frameworks, data classification, and privacy-by-design. + Inference cost, token usage, and compute optimization.
Preferred:
- Experience working directly with or within an AI/ML Center of Excellence, data science team, or enterprise AI governance function.
- Familiarity with responsible AI/model risk frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001) and AI governance practices.
- Working knowledge of MLOps/LLMOps concepts, model evaluation, fine-tuning, embeddings, and vector databases.
- Experience with the AI vendor and platform landscape (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft Copilot, AWS Bedrock) sufficient to support evaluation conversations.
- PMP, Agile/Scrum, or similar program management certification.
#LI-Corporate
- At least 18 years of age
- Legally authorized to work in the United States
Travel:
Travel Required (Yes/No): No
DOT Regulated:
DOT Regulated Position (Yes/No): No
Safety Sensitive Position (Yes/No): No
Total Target Cash Earnings Opportunity: $109,595 - $197,685 National Base Pay Range: $95,300 - $171,900 The Total Target Cash Earnings Opportunity represents the expected total cash compensation for this role at target performance, combining base salary and annual incentive opportunity. Actual earnings may be higher or lower depending on individual performance and overall company results.
The base pay range reflects the compensation component of this opportunity. The candidate’s actual pay will be based on various factors, such as work location, qualifications, and experience, so the actual starting pay will vary within this range. To find the pay range for this role based on hiring location, click here. At T-Mobile, employees in regular, non-temporary roles are eligible for an annual bonus or periodic sales incentive or bonus, based on their role. Corporate employees are eligible for a year-end bonus based on individual and/or company performance and which is set at a percentage of the employee’s eligible earnings in the prior year. Certain positions in Customer Care are eligible for monthly bonuses based on individual and/or team performance. The incentive component included in the Total Target Cash Earnings Opportunity reflects target performance. Actual earnings included in the Total Target Cash Earnings Opportunity reflect target performance; actual payouts may vary.
At T-Mobile, our benefits exemplify the spirit of One Team, Together! A big part of how we care for one another is working to ensure our benefits evolve to meet the needs of our team members. Full and part-time employees have access to the same benefits when eligible. We cover all of the bases, offering medical, dental and vision insurance, a flexible spending account, 401(k), employee stock grants, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off and up to 12 paid holidays - which total about 4 weeks for new full-time employees and about 2.5 weeks for new part-time employees annually - paid parental and family leave, family building benefits, back-up care, enhanced family support, childcare subsidy, tuition assistance, college coaching, short- and long-term disability, voluntary AD&D coverage, voluntary accident coverage, voluntary life insurance, voluntary disability insurance, and voluntary long-term care insurance. We don't stop there - eligible employees can also receive mobile service & home internet discounts, pet insurance, and access to commuter and transit programs! To learn about T-Mobile’s amazing benefits, check out www.t-mobilebenefits.com*.*
Never stop growing! ###
As part of the T-Mobile team, you know the Un-carrier doesn’t have a corporate ladder–it’s more like a jungle gym of possibilities! We love helping our employees grow in their careers, because it’s that shared drive to aim high that drives our business and our culture forward. By applying for this career opportunity, you’re living our values while investing in your career growth–and we applaud it. You’re unstoppable! ###
T-Mobile USA, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All decisions concerning the employment relationship will be made without regard to age, race, ethnicity, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, citizenship status, veteran status, the presence of any physical or mental disability, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Discrimination, retaliation or harassment based upon any of these factors is wholly inconsistent with how we do business and will not be tolerated. ###
Talent comes in all forms at the Un-carrier. If you are an individual with a disability and need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know by emailing [email protected] or calling 1-844-873-9500. Please note, this contact channel is not a means to apply for or inquire about a position and we are unable to respond to non-accommodation related requests.
Salary Context
This $95K-$197K range is below the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $176K across 1540 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 9,653 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 76% of the market. At T-Mobile, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $212,000 based on 11,857 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. This role's midpoint ($146K) sits 31% below the category median. Disclosed range: $95K to $197K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,275; VP: $235,000.
T-Mobile AI Hiring
T-Mobile has 7 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span Bellevue, WA, Overland Park, KS, US, Bellevue, WA, US. Compensation range: $160K - $280K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (568 positions) offer remote work, while 9,010 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,878 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,413 roles, $264,500 median); Los Angeles (1,340 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,653 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 193 entry-level, 4,500 mid-level, 3,455 senior, and 1,505 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (568 positions). The remaining 9,010 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,653 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (7,301), Data Scientist (441), AI Software Engineer (438). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (193) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,500) and senior (3,455) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,505 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (568 positions), with 9,010 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,400. Top-quartile roles start at $264,230, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,605 postings), Aws (916 postings), Azure (724 postings), Rag (634 postings), Gcp (522 postings), Pytorch (495 postings), Kubernetes (384 postings), Claude (383 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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