Tech

AI / ML Engineer Salary in Indiana (2026)

The average AI / ML Engineer in Indiana earns around $220,000/year. After taxes, your estimated take-home is $157,472/year ($13,123/month).

Take-Home Pay Breakdown

CategoryAmount
Annual Take-Home Pay
$157,472
Monthly Take-Home Pay
$13,123
Biweekly Take-Home Pay
$6,057
Hourly Take-Home Pay

based on 2,080 hrs/year

$76/hr
Federal Tax
$41,704
State Tax
$6,015
FICA Taxes
$14,809
Effective Tax Rate

total taxes ÷ gross salary

28.42%
Estimates only — not tax advice. · Full disclaimer →

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AI / ML Engineer Salary Ranges in Indiana

Entry Level (0–3 yrs)

$165,000

/year

See tax breakdown →

Mid Level (3–7 yrs)

$220,000

/year

See tax breakdown →

Senior Level (7+ yrs)

$380,000

/year

See tax breakdown →

Not all AI / ML Engineers earn the same — not even close

Indiana's AI/ML engineering market is anchored by Eli Lilly's substantial drug-discovery + clinical-data ML organization (post-GLP-1 success has substantially expanded Lilly's computational biology + AI-augmented research investment), Anthem/Elevance Health (Fortune 25, ~25K IN employees, largest single-state healthcare insurance AI/ML organization), Salesforce Tower Indianapolis (Marketing Cloud platform ML), Cummins Columbus (engine + power generation predictive maintenance), plus Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center cleared electronic warfare AI/ML (southern IN, ~3.7K employees) and Purdue + IU academic AI research.

Principal ML Engineer / Senior Scientist

$225,000–$385,000+ TC

Eli Lilly senior computational biology · Anthem senior data science · Purdue/IU industry-funded research

Senior ML Engineer (Pharma / Drug Discovery)

$175,000–$285,000

Eli Lilly drug-discovery ML · computational biology + protein folding · pharma-ML compliance premium

Senior ML Engineer (Healthcare Insurance)

$145,000–$220,000

Anthem/Elevance claims + member analytics · OneAmerica risk · HIPAA + actuarial ML specialty

Senior ML Engineer (Industrial / OT)

$135,000–$210,000

Cummins predictive maintenance · Allison Transmission · Subaru SIA · industrial OT/IT ML

Senior ML Engineer (SaaS / Commercial)

$145,000–$220,000

Salesforce Tower Marketing Cloud ML · Genesys · senior IC at IN tech employers

Senior MLOps Engineer

$125,000–$190,000

Production ML deployment · Lilly clinical-data pipelines · Anthem real-time scoring · senior platform IC

ML Engineer (Mid-Level, 3-6 yrs)

$108,000–$165,000

Most common mid-career band · Purdue + IU + Notre Dame + Rose-Hulman pipeline · cross-industry

Junior ML Engineer (0-3 yrs)

$85,000–$125,000

Post-Purdue + IU + Notre Dame + Rose-Hulman MS/PhD · Lilly LIRA + Anthem new-grad program · entry band

Senior Cleared ML Engineer (Crane NSWC)

$155,000–$245,000

Crane Naval Surface Warfare · cleared electronic warfare ML + signals processing · TS/SCI premium

Senior Research Scientist (Purdue / IU)

$155,000–$245,000

Industry-funded academic research · Purdue ML + AI faculty · IU Luddy School senior research

Worth knowing: Eli Lilly's drug-discovery + clinical-data ML organization is the structural depth feature most national AI/ML-career surveys understate for IN. Following the GLP-1 commercial success (Mounjaro + Zepbound have driven Lilly's revenue from $28B in 2022 to projected $50B+ in 2026), Lilly has substantially expanded computational biology + protein folding + clinical-trial AI investment — senior pharma ML engineers at Lilly clear $175-285K TC plus equity. Lilly's Indianapolis Technology Center hosts substantial computational biology + AI-augmented research operations. Anthem/Elevance Health (Fortune 25, ~25K IN employees) operates the country's largest single-state healthcare insurance AI/ML organization across claims analytics, member outcomes, fraud detection, and provider-network optimization. Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center (southern IN, ~3.7K employees) drives cleared electronic warfare + signals processing AI/ML at TS/SCI clearance scales — distinctive vs the DC/MD/NoVa cleared cluster. Purdue's Computer Science + Statistics + Industrial Engineering programs feed substantial AI/ML talent into Lilly + Anthem + Crane + national pure-AI firms. IN's 2.95% flat + Marion County 2.02% piggyback (4.97% combined effective) is among the lower US senior-AI state burden — substantially better than CA + NY + MA at senior IC tier.

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