How to hire a product applications engineer

How to hire a product applications engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step product applications 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 product applications engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new product applications engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a product applications engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The product applications engineer hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   A product applications engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, product applications 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.

   This list shows salaries for various types of product applications engineers.

   Type of Product Applications Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Product Applications Engineer	Sales engineers sell complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses. They must have extensive knowledge of the products’ parts and functions and must understand the scientific processes that make these products work.	$36-66
   Sales Engineering Manager	A sales engineering manager specializes in developing systems and procedures to optimize a company's sales operations, aiming for client satisfaction and profit growth. It is their duty to set goals and timelines, establish guidelines, manage different teams, research new business and client opportunities, gather and analyze data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing operations, develop sales strategies, and implement solutions against problem areas... Show more	$42-80
   Engineer	Engineers are highly trained professionals who determine the feasibility of various projects, usually related to the construction industry. They are considered experts in mathematics and science, two disciplines that they need to use in designing and coming up with plans for projects... Show more	$31-62

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Technical Support
   • Product Line
   • RF
   • Product Design
   • Trade Shows
   • Solidworks
   • R
   • Analog
   • Technical Training
   • Technical Issues
   • Technical Presentations
   • Semiconductor
   • Reference Designs
   • Technical Problems

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage the manufacturing of defense and aerospace electro-mechanical print circuit boards from prototype to production level.
   • Analyze and debug digital and RF hardware and systems in-house and at customer sites.
   • Work on XML base integration for data exchange between OTM and client applications.
   • Support transactions include legacy systems, DLMS EDI and XML formats as well as custom XML.
   • Assist in wide variety of technical assessments of OEM customer requirements in support of sales and business development activities.
   • Design an automatic gain control algorithm (AGC) for LTE base station receivers along with other RF performance improvement techniques.

   More product applications engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your product applications engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A product applications engineer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, product applications engineers' average salary in indiana is 55% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level product applications engineers 46% less than senior-level product applications engineers.
   • Certifications. A product applications engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a product applications engineer's salary.

   Average product applications engineer salary

   $101,877yearly

   $48.98 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level product applications engineer salary

   $75,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average product applications engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$146,979	$71
   2	Arizona	$124,229	$60
   3	Colorado	$107,696	$52
   4	Texas	$106,383	$51
   5	Virginia	$105,989	$51
   6	Oregon	$104,309	$50
   7	Washington	$99,662	$48
   8	Maryland	$91,633	$44
   9	Georgia	$90,471	$44
   10	New York	$87,343	$42
   11	Massachusetts	$86,067	$41
   12	North Carolina	$79,729	$38
   13	Ohio	$74,810	$36
   14	Minnesota	$69,272	$33
   15	Michigan	$66,963	$32
   16	Indiana	$62,656	$30

   Average product applications engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$139,617	$67.12	94
   2	Varian Medical Systems	$128,022	$61.55
   3	Xilinx	$123,976	$59.60
   4	Amd	$120,205	$57.79	93
   5	Broadcom	$118,827	$57.13	90
   6	Icma-rc	$112,136	$53.91	1
   7	ASML Holding	$110,818	$53.28	6
   8	Synopsys	$110,504	$53.13	15
   9	Knowles	$110,050	$52.91
   10	Infineon Technologies	$109,740	$52.76	8
   11	Impinj	$109,153	$52.48	1
   12	General Motors	$107,831	$51.84	101
   13	Micron Technology	$107,171	$51.52	56
   14	Conexant	$107,031	$51.46
   15	Allegro MicroSystems	$106,802	$51.35	2
   16	Renesas Electronics	$106,775	$51.33	1
   17	Silicon Labs	$105,419	$50.68	2
   18	Corning Incorporated	$105,029	$50.49	18
   19	Xylem	$104,029	$50.01	26
   20	ClearOne	$103,970	$49.99

4. Writing a product applications engineer job description

   A good product applications engineer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a product applications engineer job description:

   Product applications engineer job description example

   NVIDIA's deep learning platform has already made a major impact to the field and is broadly used across leading academic institutions, start-ups, and industry, including the world's largest Internet companies. We need hardworking, and creative people to help us dive into more of these rare opportunities in GPU application in enterprise solution space.
   
   We are now looking for an expert Hardware Applications Engineer with the ability to focus on customer enablement of datacenter products, work with customers and internal teams to resolve hardware, firmware and software issues, and provide key technical collateral. This is a highly technical engineering role that is responsible for providing best-in-class support to NVIDIA's enterprise customers. We are looking for someone who has superb interpersonal skills, and can understand, explain, and solve customer problems. This position will focus on NVIDIA enterprise datacenter products in workstation and server applications.
   What you'll be doing:
   Perform system design reviews for data center applications to ensure partner designs meet NVIDIA guidelines. Work on resolving system integration issues related to thermal, mechanical, electrical, PCIe and GPU interconnect interfaces including out of band management services. Understand system design requirements for HPC and AI workloads to drive platform configuration guides for x86 and ARM servers. Conduct the installation, configuration and bring-up of enterprise server hardware. Work directly with our NVIDIA customers, and analyze data to answer questions, reproduce errors, resolve same, or escalate customer issues. Be involved in customer interaction, customer communication via conference calls, or face to face meetings Familiarize yourself with performing hardware debug using oscilloscope and analyzers to qualify, validate and solve NVIDIA products for customer systems. Track, file new bugs and reproduce issues as needed. Create product specifications, hardware design guides, application notes, and other supporting technical collateral.
   
   What we need to see:
   BS or higher in EE, CE or Systems Engineering or equivalent experience. 3+ years of relevant experience in supporting enterprise datacenter products for x86 or ARM architecture. Have strong analytical skills and past experience in reviewing enterprise system design and CPU architecture. Understanding of x86 and ARM system architecture for server design including BMC, security and out of band management. Professional-level interpersonal skills, including your ability to adjust your communication to the technical level of the audience. An innate capability to accurately and succinctly communicate procedures, results, and recommendations to customers. Experience with using lab tools such as oscilloscope, multi-meters and logic analyzers. Possess a nurtured knowledge of Linux, and be very comfortable working in various Linux environments as well as with Windows OS's
   
   NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world's most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and hardworking people in the world working for us. If you're creative and autonomous, we want to hear from you!
   
   NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right product applications engineer for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

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

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit product applications engineers, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   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 product applications engineer

   Once you've selected the best product applications engineer candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new product applications 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.)

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How much does it cost to hire a product applications engineer?