US Robotics & Hardware Engineering Salary Report
Median base salary by role and seniority, built from salary ranges disclosed directly in active job postings on Machine Works — never estimated, never extrapolated.
Last updated October 13, 2026 · Download the full CSV
Median base salary by role category
USD/year, roles with at least 8 disclosed salaries. Sorted by median, high to low.
By role and seniority
USD/year. 545 of 1,329 disclosed salaries don't state a seniority level and are included only in the category chart above, not this breakdown.
| Category | Level | n | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controls | Lead | 23 | $193,542 | $200,000 | $284,000 |
| Senior | 32 | $167,625 | $191,000 | $204,850 | |
| Electronics | Lead | 16 | $202,375 | $222,500 | $267,375 |
| Principal | 23 | $207,500 | $212,500 | $223,025 | |
| Senior | 53 | $165,000 | $185,000 | $218,500 | |
| Mid | 14 | $136,000 | $146,875 | $186,500 | |
| Firmware | Lead | 9 | $215,000 | $249,050 | $288,250 |
| Senior | 23 | $188,200 | $212,000 | $231,575 | |
| Quality | Lead | 11 | $165,000 | $186,000 | $229,280 |
| Senior | 17 | $144,500 | $156,000 | $195,050 | |
| Mechanical | Principal | 8 | $209,375 | $231,000 | $231,000 |
| Lead | 14 | $171,250 | $187,500 | $210,625 | |
| Senior | 68 | $162,125 | $165,652 | $193,438 | |
| Mid | 16 | $130,000 | $131,250 | $140,678 | |
| Perception | Senior | 28 | $195,050 | $218,125 | $261,662 |
| Manufacturing | Senior | 21 | $152,000 | $177,500 | $183,500 |
| Lead | 26 | $150,250 | $175,750 | $212,238 | |
| Software | Lead | 15 | $235,000 | $249,000 | $266,750 |
| Senior | 67 | $182,940 | $204,800 | $226,750 | |
| Mid | 15 | $152,900 | $168,500 | $196,000 | |
| Junior | 11 | $117,175 | $140,500 | $144,825 | |
| Testing | Principal | 14 | $213,750 | $218,000 | $221,989 |
| Lead | 20 | $183,725 | $216,250 | $283,125 | |
| Senior | 49 | $156,750 | $178,500 | $223,975 | |
| Leadership | Lead | 37 | $207,500 | $228,160 | $273,500 |
| Senior | 12 | $194,375 | $207,250 | $219,000 |
Hourly roles (technicians)
USD/hour, shown separately and never converted to an annual figure.
| Category | n | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | 11 | $37.74/hr | $42.4/hr | $47/hr |
| Manufacturing | 61 | $31/hr | $40/hr | $50.5/hr |
| Testing | 20 | $33.67/hr | $39.95/hr | $44.6/hr |
| Field | 37 | $28.5/hr | $36.5/hr | $39.52/hr |
The salary transparency gap
Share of all active job postings that disclose a salary range, by region — not just the roles with salary data, every active posting we track.
Methodology
Every number on this page comes from salary ranges that employers themselves disclosed in the job posting text on Machine Works — nothing here is estimated, modeled, or extrapolated. These are posted ranges, not a survey of what people are actually paid, and roles that disclose a salary are a self-selected subset of all postings, not a random sample.
3,503 active postings were considered; 34 duplicate listings (same company, title and location) were collapsed to count once, leaving 3,469. Of those, 1,329 disclose a salary range. 2 rows with an internally inconsistent range (for example an hourly rate mislabeled as a yearly figure) were excluded before any of the statistics above were computed.
About 96% of disclosed salaries are in USD from US-based postings, so this report covers the US market only — there isn't enough disclosed salary data from Europe or elsewhere to support a regional comparison of pay levels (see the transparency gap above for why).
Every breakdown shown requires at least 8 disclosed salaries in a cell; smaller groups are omitted rather than shown with a misleading median. Figures are medians and interquartile range (P25–P75), computed directly in Postgres from active postings at the time this report was generated — never in the browser, and never from tracked job-level data.
Report generated October 13, 2026.
Get the monthly salary report + weekly robotics jobs
A new salary report every month, plus a weekly digest of robotics and hardware roles. Free, one-click unsubscribe.