Are you an average engineer living in California? Then, it’s likely you make about $103,000. What is the highest-paid engineering job in California? That’s an electrical engineer, who makes an average of $126,000. On the other hand, if you’re a computer hardware engineer in the state of California, your salary will be $99,000 on average.
California is home to some of the most innovative, cutting-edge companies in the world. And with a median salary of $120,000, engineers are paid quite handsomely for their contributions.
The average engineer salary in California is $119,000 per year. With a cost of living almost 15% higher than the national average, this means that California engineers will have to earn more in order to maintain their standard of living.
Average engineer salary in California
In this article, we’ll show you average salary for different kinds of engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a lot of engineers here at Scopus Technologies, so it was important for us to make sure that our wages were competitive with the market rate.
San Francisco Bay Area
You might be wondering why we’re talking about engineers in California. Well, the San Francisco Bay Area is a region in Northern California that includes cities like San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. It’s also home to Silicon Valley—the famous hub for many tech companies like Apple, Google and Intel. The Bay Area is one of the most highly-desired places in America for high-paid jobs; according to Glassdoor’s Best Cities for Jobs report (published on April 9th), it ranks #2 in the U.S. behind Washington D.C., coming in ahead of New York City (#3) and Seattle (#4). Many of these jobs are tech positions; they pay well enough that even an average engineer salary can still get you by reasonably well here!
Subsection: Electronics engineer
Electronics engineer
The average salary for an electronics engineer in California is $86,900 per year. This salary is based on a survey of 2,000 responses from engineers in the state who work with electronics as part of their job. The annual salary includes both hourly and salaried employees because some companies pay employees by the hour while others pay a flat rate or salary each month or year.
Electronics engineers are responsible for designing and developing electronic devices such as cell phones, tablets and computers. They also work to create new products that use technology like microchips or solar panels. Electronics engineers may be required to travel out-of-state or internationally when they’re working on projects that take them outside of California’s borders.
Subsection: Electrical engineer
As an electrical engineer, you’ll be responsible for overseeing the design and development of devices that use electricity. This includes everything from power grids to smartphones and home appliances. Your average salary in California is $146,000 per year, with the highest earners making $191,000 annually.
Subsection: Mechanical engineer
The average mechanical engineer salary in San Francisco is $124,872. The average salary for a mechanical engineer in San Jose stands at $119,125 and in Los Angeles it’s $112,576. Finally, the average mechanical engineer salary in San Diego is $111,372.
Subsection: Chemical engineer
Chemical engineers are in high demand across the board, but in particular in the Bay Area. If you’re a chemical engineer and want to work there, it’s probably because you want to be close to Silicon Valley and its tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google. If it’s not just proximity that you’re looking for—if you’d rather work with a company that uses chemistry or chemical processes as part of their business—then there are many oil companies based out of California including Chevron and Exxon Mobil. Other industries with jobs available for chemists include pharmaceutical manufacturing, food processing companies (like Nestle) and even mining businesses where they mine gold or silver from mountainside mineside operations.
Subsection: Aerospace engineer
- Aerospace engineers have an average salary range of $87,000 – $134,000.
- The average experience level for aerospace engineers is 10 – 20 years.
- The average education level required to become an aerospace engineer is a bachelor’s degree.
- Aerospace engineers work in the following environments: aerospace technology and research facilities, aircraft manufacturing plants and military bases. They also work in private companies that design and build aircraft or satellites; these companies may be located near airports where they have access to test facilities such as wind tunnels or hangars where they can run flight tests on their new designs.
Subsection: Petroleum engineer
Petroleum engineer
Salary: $125,000 – $145,000
The petroleum engineer is responsible for designing and building oil and gas wells. The position has the option of working onshore or offshore, with the latter requiring more experience and training. Petroleum engineers can expect to earn between $125,000 to $145,000 annually in California. A petroleum engineering degree is not required; however several years of experience are necessary before one can become a senior engineer or project manager at an oil company or construction firm
Subsection: Civil engineer
Civil engineers design and build roads, bridges, dams, water supply systems, and other infrastructure. Civil engineers often have a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering or related field. The median annual wage for civil engineers was $84,400 in May 2017.
Engineers make a lot of money in the Bay Area.
For example, an average engineer in the Bay Area makes around $89,000 per year. This is almost double what someone working in the same job would make on average in a different state, such as Texas ($45K) or New Jersey ($57K).
Engineers who live in California also tend to earn more than their peers elsewhere. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), people with this profession earned an average wage of $110k annually as of May 2017—more than twice what those outside of the state made that year: just $50k per year on average outside of California or Florida; closer to $60k for those living outside Colorado and Washington D.C.; about $66k within New York City; etcetera. This data reflects all engineers across all disciplines within each location; however it does not take into account any factor particular only to certain jobs within these fields (e.g., construction engineers might earn less than software developers). The highest-paid professionals would likely be found among those who work with complex systems like computers or aerospace equipment where there’s plenty of room for experienced experts who know how best integrate different parts together into something usable by others without having been trained specifically for this purpose – especially since there are fewer people willing/able enough being hired into these positions due time constraints imposed by cost efficiency measures implemented by employers looking towards automation measures instead.”
Conclusion
We hope this data is helpful to software engineers and other tech workers who want to get an idea of what salary they can expect in the Bay Area. Obviously, no two companies will offer the same exact salary for a given role, but this information should provide a pretty good indicator for what you can expect out of your job search.
