The median hardware engineer posting at a tech startup offers $168K base, with the middle half between $146K and $190K — from 694 live pay ranges at 58 companies. Entry-level postings sit around $102K; staff+ around $205K.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry / new grad | 15 | $102K | $100K–$120K |
| Level not stated | 284 | $147K | $129K–$163K |
| Senior | 247 | $170K | $161K–$183K |
| Staff+ | 148 | $205K | $180K–$223K |
| City | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Mesa | 158 | $170K | $150K–$193K |
| Long Beach | 94 | $152K | $130K–$183K |
| San Francisco | 35 | $203K | $168K–$289K |
| Torrance | 28 | $155K | $129K–$176K |
| El Segundo | 26 | $176K | $149K–$207K |
| South San Francisco | 24 | $188K | $172K–$209K |
| Irvine | 23 | $150K | $150K–$170K |
| Seattle | 23 | $174K | $118K–$230K |
| Huntington Beach | 23 | $160K | $141K–$160K |
| San Jose | 22 | $185K | $168K–$203K |
| Denver | 20 | $168K | $138K–$193K |
| Ashville | 14 | $129K | $120K–$147K |
| Santa Ana | 13 | $150K | $150K–$170K |
| Sunnyvale | 13 | $212K | $184K–$240K |
| Berkeley | 13 | $161K | $149K–$171K |
| Somerville | 12 | $135K | $115K–$179K |
| Boston | 11 | $125K | $104K–$160K |
| Playa Vista | 11 | $165K | $147K–$165K |
| Fort Collins | 10 | $138K | $100K–$167K |
| South Burlington | 10 | $113K | $100K–$126K |
| Company | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | 3 | $363K | $363K–$363K |
| OpenAI | 13 | $336K | $286K–$366K |
| Apptronik | 4 | $261K | $248K–$276K |
| Etched | 2 | $250K | $250K–$250K |
| Waymo | 2 | $227K | $202K–$252K |
| Zipline | 18 | $205K | $181K–$211K |
| Verkada | 8 | $204K | $193K–$224K |
| Chaos Industries | 14 | $199K | $182K–$233K |
| Reliable Robotics | 7 | $199K | $199K–$220K |
| Agility Robotics | 8 | $194K | $167K–$215K |
| Applied Intuition | 6 | $193K | $167K–$213K |
| CoreWeave | 4 | $191K | $183K–$201K |
| Figure | 8 | $185K | $174K–$185K |
| Muon Space | 9 | $183K | $168K–$203K |
| PsiQuantum | 3 | $183K | $167K–$205K |
| Electrical Engineer, PCBA Test Infrastructure, Robotics OpenAI |
$318K–$485K |
| Compute Electrical Engineer, Robotics OpenAI |
$318K–$485K |
| Mechanical Engineer, Hardware Systems OpenAI |
$266K–$455K |
| ASIC Firmware Engineer, Modeling OpenAI |
$226K–$445K |
| Electrical Engineer, Robotics OpenAI |
$287K–$423K |
| Mechanical Engineer, PCBA Test Infrastructure, Robotics OpenAI |
$318K–$423K |
| Networking Operating System Firmware Engineer OpenAI |
$225K–$423K |
| Data Center Electrical Engineer Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, base salary as posted), across open roles at the startups we track, recalculated daily. Postings without a range, interns and contractors are excluded. Updated Oct 27, 2026.