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Kurtis Pykes Follow

May 30, 2021 · 4 min read · · Listen

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Essential Skills For Machine Learning Engineers

Building a Machine Learning Engineer

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 Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

Do you enjoy creating software but are extremely intrigued by Data Science? If so, you
may want to consider the role of a Machine Learning Engineer. Machine Learning
engineers sit at the intersection of Software Engineering and Data Science — meaning
you’ll need both skills if you really want to excel.

The focus of Data Scientists is to transform disparate data into actionable insights. On
the other hand, the Machine Learning Engineer focuses on developing working
software that makes use of the data as well as automating predictive models.

Overview Of Data Related Roles

Data from Different Perspectives

Here’s a summary of the skills required:

Software Engineering
Computer Science fundamentals are vital for the Machine Learning engineer; A good
grasp of Data Structures & Algorithms such as Multi-dimensional arrays, arrays, stacks,
queues, trees, etc. ML engineers should also be able to write algorithms that are
capable of searching, sorting, and optimizing code. To further add, an understanding
of computability, complexity, and computer architecture are all necessary.

Since the final output from a Machine Learning engineer is typically deliverable
software, ML engineers must have a good idea of how each of the different pieces of
software works and communicates to build suitable interfaces for your component.

Data Science
Data Scientists typically have a heavy reliance on programming languages such as
Python, R, SQL, Java, etc. They also have a sound foundational base in probability and
statistics — Topics include;
 Hypothesis Testing

Likelihood

Bayes Rule

Calculus

Conditional Probability

Hidden Markov Models

Distributions

Note: This is by no means an exhaustive list. For more read my article, Courses to Learn Data
Science in 2021

Also, ML engineers should have adept data modeling and evaluation skills. Data
modeling is the process of training a learning algorithm to predict the labels given a
set of features.

The goal of modeling is to identify useful patterns that best allow the model to
generalize to new unseen instances — here is where evaluation comes into play. At the
beginning of a Machine Learning project, the most appropriate evaluation metric for
the task will be used to determine how well the algorithm has performed.

Machine Learning
Many of the widely used Machine Learning algorithms can be implemented through
third-party libraries such as Scikit-Learn, Keras, TensorFlow, PyTorch, MLlib, etc.
However, applying these algorithms effectively includes selecting a model that is
suitable for the problem at hand, an optimization method, and understanding the
effect of hyperparameters on learning.

Additionally, ML engineers should be adept at hyperparameter tuning. A

hyperparameter is a parameter value that is used to control the learning process,
therefore hyperparameter tuning may be described as the problem of selecting a set of
optimal hyperparameters for a learning algorithm.
Some other tools ML Engineers may be required to know (depending on the company
they work for) include:

Spark & Hadoop

Apache Kafka

Google Cloud ML Engine

Amazon Machine Learning

Azure Machine Learning

IBM Watson

Machine Learning Engineer Self Learning Path

Like Data Science, there is a lot to learn to become a Machine Learning Engineer.
Assuming we’ve already learned the foundation Math requirements, below I will leave
some good resources to help you practice various parts of the ML engineer skillset:

Software Engineering & Programming

Problems - LeetCode
Level up your coding skills and quickly land a job. This is the best place
to expand your knowledge and get prepared…
leetcode.com

Dashboard | HackerRank
Join over 7 million developers in solving code challenges on
HackerRank, one of the best ways to prepare for…
www.hackerrank.com

Data Science & Machine Learning

 Kaggle: Your Machine Learning and Data Science Community
Kaggle is the world's largest data science community with powerful
tools and resources to help you achieve your data…
www.kaggle.com

DataHack : Biggest Data hackathon platform for Data Scientists

Data science hackathons on DataHack enable you to compete with
leading data scientists and machine learning experts in…
datahack.analyticsvidhya.com

Courses

Machine Learning by Standford

Deep Learning Specialization by DeepLearning.AI

Become a Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree

Introduction To Machine Learning in Production

Computer Science Principles by Khan Academy

Algorithms By Khan Academy

Wrap Up
As Data Science continues to shift from research to production, the demand for ML
engineers has been increasing rapidly. If you have a knack for building great software
but still love Data Science, the ML engineer path may be the one for you.

Thank You for Reading!

If you enjoyed this article, connect with me by subscribing to my FREE weekly

newsletter. Never miss a post I make about Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and
Freelancing.
 My Biggest Challenges Being A Self-Taught Data Scientist
And How I Overcame Them
towardsdatascience.com

5 Laws For Self-Taught Data Professionals

towardsdatascience.com

Data Scientists Should Know Software Engineering Best Practices

Becoming an indispensable Data Scientist
towardsdatascience.com

Artificial Intelligence Education Advice Ideas Technology

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