Salary Data
MLOps Engineer Salary in Nashville
$160,000
median salary, at the national average
According to Orbit's 2026 salary analysis, the average MLOps Engineer salary in Nashville is $160,000. Salaries range from $120,000 (25th percentile) to $210,000 (75th percentile), adjusted for Nashville's cost of living.
Salary range
How Nashville compares
Nashville, TN
$160,000
Cost of living: at average
National Average
$160,000
Same as local rate
MLOps Engineer job market in Nashville
Nashville market overview
Nashville has diversified well beyond music into healthcare, finance, and technology. The city is home to HCA Healthcare and a growing corridor of health tech startups. Nashville's moderate cost of living, combined with Tennessee's lack of state income tax on wages, makes it increasingly popular for corporate relocations and remote workers.
What drives MLOps Engineer salaries
Experience with ML pipeline orchestration (Kubeflow, MLflow, Vertex AI), model monitoring in production, and infrastructure automation are the key salary levers. Engineers who can reduce model deployment time from weeks to hours earn premiums. Understanding both the ML lifecycle and cloud infrastructure deeply is what separates mid level from senior compensation.
Beyond base salary
Total compensation
Equity at AI companies adds $20,000 to $90,000+ annually. Bonuses of 10 to 20% are typical. On call compensation is common since MLOps engineers maintain production ML systems. Benefits frequently include cloud certification sponsorship, training budgets, and flexible work arrangements.
Tax considerations in Nashville
Tennessee has no state income tax on wages or salaries. This gives Nashville workers a meaningful take home advantage over peers in states with 5 to 10% income tax rates.
Career progression
Junior MLOps engineers start at $105,000 to $135,000, reaching mid level at $140,000 to $180,000 in two to three years. Senior MLOps engineers earn $180,000 to $240,000. Staff level ML platform engineers at top companies can exceed $300,000 in total compensation, with a path into ML infrastructure leadership.
Top industries in Nashville
Negotiating in Nashville
Use the healthcare industry concentration as leverage. Nashville healthcare employers are accustomed to national pay scales and will often match or beat coastal health sector offers.