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Pay · 17-2061

Computer Hardware Engineers earn $161,740 a year at the midpoint

From about $92,940 at the low end to $225,330 at the top, with $161,740 in the middle — the 2025 survey, published as reported.

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$161,740median a year · United States
$77.76an hour $162,670average 76,660people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$126,09025th $161,740median $202,99075th
$92,94010th percentile $225,33090th percentile
$126,090a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$185,180best-paying state · California
$78,320lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+14%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

Among the best-paidNumber 16 of 788 occupations by median pay — in the top five per cent.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $185,180 in California and $78,320 in Mississippi — a gap of $106,860 a year.

Computer hardware engineer earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Adjacent work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Computer Hardware Engineers$161,740
Aerospace Engineers$134,960−$26,780 Electronics Engineers, Except Computer$130,220−$31,520 Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers$109,370−$52,370 Mechanical Engineers$104,110−$57,630 Industrial Engineers$102,440−$59,300 Civil Engineers$100,840−$60,900

Number 16 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 98% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 14 Marketing managers $166,790
  2. 15 Financial Managers $166,570
  3. 16 Computer Hardware Engineers $161,740
  4. 17 Podiatrists $160,300
  5. 18 Lawyers $159,670

Computer hardware engineer pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$161,741a year

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of job.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Computer hardware engineer wages by state

The 33 states where the most people do this work, of 41 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.22 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $185,180 $126,590 $126,590 — $281,210 19,820
Washington $169,120 $100,120 $100,120 — $260,210 1,800
Massachusetts $167,600 $118,490 $118,490 — $258,880 3,150
New Mexico $165,350 $117,150 $117,150 — $204,150 5,260
Texas $163,860 $92,940 $92,940 — $216,260 7,390
New York $163,470 $101,530 $101,530 — $224,490 3,020
District of Columbia $163,360 $100,690 $100,690 — $211,950 210
Arizona $158,280 $100,900 $100,900 — $218,440 3,110
Colorado $156,080 $100,050 $100,050 — $222,220 2,660
Maryland $152,730 $87,840 $87,840 — $198,300 1,720
New Jersey $142,880 $87,540 $87,540 — $210,900 580
Virginia $139,030 $87,630 $87,630 — $195,290 1,720
Alabama $136,990 $80,680 $80,680 — $195,190 680
North Carolina $134,670 $74,310 $74,310 — $234,390 1,340
Minnesota $134,300 $84,770 $84,770 — $176,340 770
Florida $134,160 $77,680 $77,680 — $203,510 3,290
Illinois $133,220 $77,420 $77,420 — $210,100 1,420
Idaho $131,570 $85,230 $85,230 — $212,880 920
New Hampshire $129,140 $75,740 $75,740 — $202,720 310
South Carolina $125,110 $74,990 $74,990 — $171,540 690
Arkansas $120,290 $70,870 $70,870 — $166,450 160
Michigan $119,670 $78,240 $78,240 — $176,700 1,420
Rhode Island $119,510 $80,620 $80,620 — $158,570 390
Ohio $118,160 $75,240 $75,240 — $196,680 580
Kentucky $116,200 $71,400 $71,400 — $128,050 500
Utah $106,950 $72,550 $72,550 — $168,320 430
Missouri $103,980 $61,290 $61,290 — $150,050 900
Kansas $101,750 $74,520 $74,520 — $145,800 220
Georgia $100,210 $70,920 $70,920 — $165,610 650
Indiana $98,350 $73,780 $73,780 — $136,970 320
Oklahoma $95,600 $77,150 $77,150 — $171,560 180
Wisconsin $83,670 $68,330 $68,330 — $172,820 270
Louisiana $83,550 $47,840 $47,840 — $150,290 270

No estimate is published for 4 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Resumes for computer hardware engineers

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

VerilogMagellan FirmwareCThe MathWorks MATLABC++MathWorks SimulinkLinuxPython
  • Updated knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.
  • Designed and developed computer hardware and support peripherals, including central processing units (CPUs), support logic, microprocessors, custom integrated circuits, and printers and disk drives.
  • Conferred with engineering staff and consulted specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Questions people ask most

What is a computer hardware engineer’s yearly income?

A computer hardware engineer makes a median of $161,740 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $126,090 and $202,990.

What is a computer hardware engineer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $77.76 an hour; the average is $162,670 a year.

What is the starting pay for a computer hardware engineer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $126,090 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $92,940.

Which state pays computer hardware engineers the most?

California, with a median of $185,180 a year.

How many people work as computer hardware engineers?

About 76,660 in the United States — number 16 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $5,050 of what computer hardware engineers earn — $161,740 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations