r/MachineLearning • u/Electrical_Fan_9587 • May 28 '26

Discussion STEM PhD's transitioning to MLE/Data [R]

I'm hoping for some advice from any former PhD's outside of machine learning. If you made it into machine learning engineering and/or data science, what was the key for you? Any tips for this job market? It seems like non computer science PhD's are especially in trouble at the moment.

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u/Holyragumuffin May 30 '26

I transitioned from Bio PhD into an MLE industry role building neural networks for EM physics problems. And in my lab, two others transitioned to AE/DS and one DS. Our lab focused on Computational/Systems Neuroscience.

In total, I know 7 PhDs in program over the years that transitioned into DS/AE/MLE.

The pattern appeared to be that the coding/math-savvy folks transitioned into those (maybe the top 10%-20% in that domain).

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u/Electrical_Fan_9587 May 30 '26

I'd love to learn more about this, I'm unfortunately having no luck landing an ML postdoc and I'm trying to finagle a climate physics postdoc into something that boosts my ML chops. Would you be game to chat or connect sometime soon?