Hardware Engineer salary: $186K median
From 309 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$186Kmedian advertised salary
$145K – $220Kmiddle half of roles
$192Kaverage advertised salary
309roles counted
Hardware Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $220K, 11% more than senior roles ($198K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $198K | $172K–$218K | 93 |
| Lead and above | $220K | $200K–$248K | 59 |
| No level in title | $147K | $128K–$205K | 153 |
Hardware Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $218K | 138 |
| 🇺🇸California | $198K | 241 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $188K | 303 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $154K | 76 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $145K | 39 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $355K | 11 |
| River AI Inc. | $310K | 4 |
| Apptronik | $257K | 3 |
| DensityAI | $254K | 6 |
| Cerebras | $246K | 6 |
| Pure Storage | $225K | 4 |
| SambaNova | $218K | 13 |
| Lightmatter | $216K | 19 |
| Oura | $216K | 4 |
| Astranis | $215K | 6 |
| Muon Space | $202K | 6 |
| Celero Communications, Inc. | $200K | 10 |
| Waymo | $195K | 3 |
| 1X | $195K | 5 |
| Skydio | $190K | 9 |
| True Anomaly | $185K | 3 |
| CoreWeave | $181K | 3 |
| Varda Space Industries | $172K | 5 |
| IonQ | $169K | 3 |
| Epirus | $160K | 3 |
| PsiQuantum | $158K | 12 |
| Apex Technology | $147K | 3 |
| SpaceX | $146K | 114 |
| General Matter | $140K | 3 |
| Rocket Lab | $135K | 5 |
Highest-paying open Hardware Engineer roles
All hardware engineer jobs- Research Engineer, Chip Design RLAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$500K - $850KLLM
- Research Engineer, AI for Chip DesignOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$380K - $500KVerilog
- Silicon EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$320K - $485KMachine Learning
- Physical Design EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$225K - $485KPython
- Design Verification Emulation, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Austin, TX, Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KPythonC++CI/CD
- Design Verification Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX$200K - $420KPythonCI/CDBash
- Hardware Engineering ManagerPure Storage · 🇺🇸Santa Clara, California$217K - $359K
- Principal DFT Engineer (Silicon Engineering)SpaceX · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$220K - $355KLeadPythonVerilogPerl
- ASIC Network ArchitectSambaNova · 🇺🇸Austin, Texas, United States; Remote - US; San Jose, Cali…$250K - $350KRemoteRustPythonC++
- Senior HPC Platform Hardware EngineerLambda · 🇺🇸San Jose Office (Zanker)$255K - $340KSeniorMachine Learning
- Director of ASIC Design VerificationSambaNova · 🇺🇸San Jose, California, United States$270K - $340KLeadPythonMachine LearningVerilog
- Principal DFT Engineer (Silicon Engineering)SpaceX · 🇺🇸Irvine, CA$210K - $340KLeadPythonVerilogPerl
- Senior Manager, Hardware Design EngineeringSkydio · 🇺🇸San Mateo, California, United States$230K - $325KSenior
- Physical Design Timing EngineerDensityAI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA$220K - $320K
- Staff SoC Design EngineerWaymo · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA, USA$251K - $310KLeadPythonC++Scala
- Senior Staff Design Verification EngineerCerebras · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA$250K - $300KLeadPython.NETVerilog
- Design Engineer, Growth & MarketingPerplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$180K - $300KTypeScriptReactFigma
- Design Verification EngineerDensityAI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA$200K - $300K
- Lead RTL Design EngineerCerebras · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA$200K - $299KLeadPython.NETMachine Learning
- Senior Staff Engineer, SoC Architecture – Memory Subsystem and InterconnectSamsung Research America · 🇺🇸665 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA, USA$198K - $297KLead
Questions about Hardware Engineer pay
- What is the average Hardware Engineer salary?
- $192K a year on average and $186K at the median, across 309 open Hardware Engineer postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $145K to $220K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Hardware Engineer pay?
- OpenAI ($355K), River AI Inc. ($310K), Apptronik ($257K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Hardware Engineer roles at tech companies is $186K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $145K to $220K. Counted from 309 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/hardware-engineer/
Free to use with the link.