Test And Validation Engineer salary: $155K median
From 256 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$155Kmedian advertised salary
$128K – $192Kmiddle half of roles
$161Kaverage advertised salary
256roles counted
Test And Validation Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $199K, 16% more than senior roles ($172K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $172K | $146K–$198K | 73 |
| Lead and above | $199K | $192K–$233K | 20 |
| No level in title | $135K | $118K–$172K | 160 |
Test And Validation Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $200K | 75 |
| 🇺🇸California | $166K | 201 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $155K | 253 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $135K | 70 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $125K | 17 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $279K | 4 |
| DensityAI | $252K | 6 |
| Pure Storage | $218K | 4 |
| Figure | $215K | 3 |
| Cerebras | $210K | 5 |
| Lightmatter | $208K | 5 |
| Waymo | $198K | 3 |
| Muon Space | $196K | 9 |
| Oura | $188K | 3 |
| Nuro | $186K | 3 |
| Zoox | $178K | 13 |
| Skydio | $175K | 5 |
| Lucid Motors | $171K | 8 |
| Lunar Energy | $168K | 3 |
| Apex Technology | $166K | 4 |
| SambaNova | $160K | 5 |
| Varda Space Industries | $155K | 9 |
| PsiQuantum | $150K | 8 |
| IonQ | $146K | 4 |
| Motional | $146K | 3 |
| Agility Robotics | $145K | 3 |
| Astranis | $143K | 7 |
| True Anomaly | $140K | 9 |
| Skyryse | $135K | 5 |
| General Matter | $131K | 6 |
Highest-paying open Test And Validation Engineer roles
All test and validation engineer jobs- Design Verification EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$226K - $445KVerilog
- Design Verification Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX$200K - $420KPythonCI/CDBash
- Product Reliability EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$207K - $365KPython
- Engineering Manager - Reliability EngineeringRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$295K - $345K
- (Staff / Senior Staff) AI Inference Reliability Engineer, Compute InfraTogether AI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $320KLeadMachine LearningKubernetesCUDA
- Performance Verification EngineerDensityAI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA$200K - $310K
- Senior Staff Design Verification EngineerCerebras · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA$250K - $300KLeadPython.NETVerilog
- Manufacturing Electrical Test EngineerFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$130K - $300KPython
- Manufacturing Software Test EngineerFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$130K - $300KPythonC++Linux
- Design Verification EngineerDensityAI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA$200K - $300K
- Senior Systems Test Engineer, Autonomy BehaviorNuro · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California (HQ)$160K - $291KSeniorPythonC++
- Staff Systems Test Engineer, Scenario Quality and Maintenance SystemsWaymo · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA$230K - $284KLeadPythonC++SQL
- Sr. ASIC Design Verification Engineer (Silicon Engineering)SpaceX · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$175K - $280KSeniorPython
- (Senior/Junior AI Inference Reliability Engineer, Compute InfraTogether AI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$160K - $280KSeniorMachine LearningKubernetesCUDA
- Staff Design Verification EngineerCerebras · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, CA$225K - $270KLeadPython.NETVerilog
- QPU Production Test Development ManagerIonQ · 🇺🇸College Park, Maryland, United States$180K - $270KPython
- Systems Integration and Test Engineer (Senior to Staff Level)Skydio · 🇺🇸San Mateo, California, United States$196K - $270KLeadPythonSQL
- Staff / Sr. Staff Photonics Test EngineerLightmatter · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA$187K - $260KLeadPythonC#
- Sr. ASIC Design Verification Engineer (Silicon Engineering)SpaceX · 🇺🇸Redmond, WA$165K - $260KSeniorPython
- Senior Electrical Reliability EngineerAstranis · 🇺🇸San Francisco$170K - $260KSenior
Questions about Test And Validation Engineer pay
- What is the average Test And Validation Engineer salary?
- $161K a year on average and $155K at the median, across 256 open Test And Validation 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 $128K to $192K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Test And Validation Engineer pay?
- OpenAI ($279K), DensityAI ($252K), Pure Storage ($218K), 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 Test And Validation Engineer roles at tech companies is $155K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $128K to $192K. Counted from 256 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/test-engineer/
Free to use with the link.