How to hire a clinical engineer

How to hire a clinical engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step clinical engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a clinical engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a clinical engineer do?

Post a clinical engineer job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your clinical engineer job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a clinical engineer for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A clinical engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, clinical engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of clinical engineer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Clinical Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Clinical Engineer	Biomedical engineers combine engineering principles with medical and biological sciences to design and create equipment, devices, computer systems, and software used in healthcare.	$26-49
   Research And Development Engineer	Research and development engineers generally execute research and tests on product ideas, develop new products, and perform redesigns. They are employed in many industries, including manufacturing, electrical, and science-based companies... Show more	$35-64
   Product Development Engineer	A Product Development Engineer is responsible for creating and testing new product designs. They collaborate with market researchers to evaluate market needs, existing competition, and potential costs.	$30-54

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Patient Care
   • Medical Devices
   • Patients
   • FDA
   • Preventative Maintenance
   • Biomedical Equipment
   • Technical Support
   • Radiology
   • Clinical Studies
   • Patient Safety
   • Clinical Trials
   • Medical Technology
   • Clinical Equipment
   • Test Equipment

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Develop and manage in-house maintenance program utilizing a balance of OEM, third party, and in-house talent.
   • Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
   • Direct support of cardiovascular unit, surgery and relate services.
   • Support all phases of software development life cycle through FDA approval & commercial launch.
   • Handle complaint reporting, return material authorizations and assure effective timescales are applied, per the FDA.
   • Plan, coordinate and complete each project on schedule and little down time to the radiology department.

   More clinical engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your clinical engineer job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A clinical engineer salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, clinical engineers' average salary in alabama is 48% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level clinical engineers earn 46% less than senior-level clinical engineers.
   • Certifications. A clinical engineer with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a clinical engineer's salary.

   Average clinical engineer salary

   $75,883yearly

   $36.48 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level clinical engineer salary

   $55,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average clinical engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$94,400	$45
   2	Massachusetts	$83,221	$40
   3	Minnesota	$82,668	$40
   4	Illinois	$81,142	$39
   5	New Jersey	$79,136	$38
   6	Oregon	$77,690	$37
   7	Kansas	$77,429	$37
   8	Maryland	$76,659	$37
   9	Texas	$74,349	$36
   10	New York	$72,545	$35
   11	Virginia	$71,372	$34
   12	Ohio	$69,521	$33
   13	Colorado	$66,615	$32
   14	Florida	$64,284	$31
   15	Georgia	$63,014	$30
   16	Nebraska	$58,380	$28
   17	Utah	$56,489	$27
   18	Mississippi	$50,044	$24
   19	Pennsylvania	$48,753	$23

   Average clinical engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Regeneron	$90,275	$43.40	21
   2	Abbott	$90,176	$43.35	216
   3	St. Jude's Recovery Center	$89,835	$43.19
   4	Mayo Clinic	$87,977	$42.30	89
   5	Cyberonics	$87,813	$42.22
   6	Community Medical Center	$84,819	$40.78
   7	Medtronic	$83,853	$40.31	310
   8	Brigham and Women's Hospital	$83,541	$40.16	29
   9	Siemens	$83,048	$39.93	14
   10	Advanced Bionics	$81,437	$39.15
   11	Massachusetts General Hospital	$81,433	$39.15
   12	University of Maryland Medical System	$81,417	$39.14	74
   13	Applied Medical Resources	$81,230	$39.05	10
   14	NeuroPace	$81,183	$39.03
   15	Goldbelt Falcon	$80,520	$38.71
   16	Alere	$80,451	$38.68
   17	Kaiser Permanente	$80,238	$38.58	176
   18	Cedars-Sinai	$79,941	$38.43	174
   19	Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center	$79,880	$38.40
   20	Northern Lights	$79,871	$38.40	19

4. Writing a clinical engineer job description

   A job description for a clinical engineer role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a clinical engineer job description:

   Clinical engineer job description example

   Prometheus Federal Services (PFS) is seeking a Biomedical Engineer/Clinical Engineer to facilitate placing Research Scientific Computing Devices (RSCD) on the network, which requires understanding security requirements of the VLAN, identifying needs from the Research Investigator Users, obtaining specifications from the Vendor, and guiding the process through approval of product review and executive review boards. The selected individual needs to understand VA Research and relate the desired end state of various research systems to be connected.
   Essential Duties and Responsibilities
   
   + Provide support to identify, resolve, and implement solutions to the IT challenge of connecting Research equipment to the VA network, which is an identified roadblock to research activities
   
   + Evaluate and improve the network connectivity and communication of Research equipment
   
   + Use a healthcare system engineering approach to assess and analyze the current organizational state of the Research equipment; perform gap analyses of differences between current and targeted states including findings and recommendations; and implement and evaluate a plan to connect the applicable Research equipment to the VA network to eliminate duplication, streamline efforts, and fill identified gaps in service
   
   + Document this work with an overall process flow or standard operating procedure, a complete inventory of networked Research equipment, individual cybersecurity risk assessments per equipment, and individual Technical Configuration Standards per equipment
   
   Minimum Qualifications:
   
   + Bachelor's degree or higher in Engineering or Certification as a Clinical Engineer (CCE).
   
   + A minimum of three years of hospital or healthcare experience maintaining medical equipment or managing a hospital medical equipment program.
   
   + Experience within a medical center and Research department OR Experience working in or with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) OR Understanding of VISN, VA medical center, and Research department operations
   
   + Demonstrated knowledge of concepts related to computer based medical systems, networking protocols, and information security as it applies to medical technology within VHA
   
   + Demonstrated competency in the ability to conduct a medical equipment management program that is compliant with applicable healthcare standards and regulatory agencies; ability to develop a curriculum for a continuing education program that address the safe and effective use of medical technology; ability to manage a recall and safety alert program for medical devices, including medical device hazard investigations, to assure compliance with patient safety goals, SMDA, and TJC requirements; ability to conduct capital asset and infrastructure planning for medical equipment spanning initial concept, installation, and effective implementation of complex medical equipment; ability to function as the subject matter expert in the field of biomedical engineering, directly supporting specialized clinical technology, including service, system administration, training, quality assurance, and life-cycle management; ability to effectively advise clinical and administrative staff on medical technology, including existing and emerging technology, which addresses viability, long-term suitability, compatibility, and/or safety; to apply project management principles to deployment of medical equipment and health information technologies
   
   + Demonstrated skill in in communicating and working collaboratively with key stakeholders, including technical and professional staff at various levels of the organization
   
   + Understanding of regulatory agencies' requirements, industry regulatory requirements and International Standard Organization standards
   
   + US Citizenship required
   
   + Ability to obtain a Public Trust if required
   
   All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
   
   This position may be subject to client or government vaccination and masking guidance, policy or requirements as may be changed from time to time.
   
   Work location is flexible if approved by the company except that position may not be performed remotely from Colorado.
   
   Powered by JazzHR

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find clinical engineers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any clinical engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level clinical engineers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your clinical engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit clinical engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit clinical engineers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical engineer

   Once you've found the clinical engineer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new clinical engineer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a clinical engineer?