Research and development engineers make $100,521 per year on average, or $48.33 per hour, in the United States. Research and development engineers on the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, make roughly $75,000 a year, while the top 10% makes $133,000.
Location impacts how much a research and development engineer can expect to make. Research and development engineers make the most in California, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, and Colorado.
The darker areas on the map show where research and development engineers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Count |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | California | $121,949 | $58.63 | 13,699 |
2 | New Mexico | $115,840 | $55.69 | 581 |
3 | Oregon | $102,789 | $49.42 | 1,669 |
4 | Washington | $102,375 | $49.22 | 4,049 |
5 | Colorado | $103,593 | $49.80 | 1,837 |
6 | Arizona | $96,771 | $46.52 | 2,153 |
7 | Nevada | $106,041 | $50.98 | 562 |
8 | North Dakota | $98,597 | $47.40 | 270 |
9 | Utah | $98,012 | $47.12 | 929 |
10 | Idaho | $106,620 | $51.26 | 382 |
11 | Massachusetts | $101,697 | $48.89 | 2,550 |
12 | Rhode Island | $92,210 | $44.33 | 375 |
13 | West Virginia | $96,806 | $46.54 | 348 |
14 | Texas | $88,261 | $42.43 | 7,166 |
15 | Delaware | $91,255 | $43.87 | 348 |
16 | Michigan | $84,355 | $40.56 | 2,652 |
17 | New Hampshire | $89,151 | $42.86 | 465 |
18 | Vermont | $84,960 | $40.85 | 231 |
19 | Oklahoma | $88,790 | $42.69 | 624 |
20 | Pennsylvania | $81,502 | $39.18 | 3,932 |
21 | District of Columbia | $94,543 | $45.45 | 434 |
22 | Tennessee | $82,439 | $39.63 | 1,546 |
23 | Montana | $90,217 | $43.37 | 232 |
24 | Alaska | $88,862 | $42.72 | 190 |
25 | Maine | $89,166 | $42.87 | 232 |
26 | Wisconsin | $81,696 | $39.28 | 1,541 |
27 | New Jersey | $88,861 | $42.72 | 1,995 |
28 | Virginia | $83,661 | $40.22 | 3,168 |
29 | Minnesota | $79,689 | $38.31 | 2,475 |
30 | Maryland | $91,841 | $44.15 | 1,332 |
31 | Connecticut | $86,379 | $41.53 | 839 |
32 | New York | $91,042 | $43.77 | 2,574 |
33 | Georgia | $79,394 | $38.17 | 3,162 |
34 | Nebraska | $77,102 | $37.07 | 720 |
35 | Wyoming | $83,099 | $39.95 | 132 |
36 | Illinois | $85,470 | $41.09 | 2,696 |
37 | Ohio | $76,093 | $36.58 | 3,015 |
38 | Louisiana | $82,508 | $39.67 | 569 |
39 | Kansas | $77,988 | $37.49 | 752 |
40 | Hawaii | $79,548 | $38.24 | 239 |
41 | Indiana | $75,324 | $36.21 | 1,809 |
42 | Alabama | $75,881 | $36.48 | 1,069 |
43 | Missouri | $76,528 | $36.79 | 1,584 |
44 | Iowa | $75,372 | $36.24 | 839 |
45 | South Dakota | $70,850 | $34.06 | 278 |
46 | Florida | $70,078 | $33.69 | 4,439 |
47 | Mississippi | $74,297 | $35.72 | 400 |
48 | North Carolina | $72,650 | $34.93 | 2,255 |
49 | Kentucky | $71,582 | $34.41 | 781 |
50 | Arkansas | $67,213 | $32.31 | 635 |
51 | South Carolina | $67,658 | $32.53 | 984 |
Rank | City | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Santa Rosa, CA | $131,840 | $63.38 |
2 | Albuquerque, NM | $117,516 | $56.50 |
3 | Colorado Springs, CO | $105,323 | $50.64 |
4 | Hillsboro, OR | $101,935 | $49.01 |
5 | Marlborough, MA | $101,648 | $48.87 |
6 | Phoenix, AZ | $97,490 | $46.87 |
7 | Clifton Park, NY | $92,534 | $44.49 |
8 | Plano, TX | $91,274 | $43.88 |
9 | Arlington Heights, IL | $86,031 | $41.36 |
10 | Farmington Hills, MI | $84,435 | $40.59 |
11 | Burlington, VT | $84,363 | $40.56 |
12 | Madison, WI | $80,923 | $38.91 |
13 | Duluth, GA | $79,847 | $38.39 |
14 | Plymouth, MN | $79,693 | $38.31 |
15 | Pittsburgh, PA | $78,992 | $37.98 |
Percentile | Annual Salary | Monthly Salary | Hourly Rate |
---|---|---|---|
90th Percentile | $133,000 | $11,083 | $64 |
75th Percentile | $116,000 | $9,667 | $56 |
Average | $100,521 | $8,377 | $48 |
25th Percentile | $86,000 | $7,167 | $41 |
10th Percentile | $75,000 | $6,250 | $36 |
Job Title | Annual Salary | Monthly Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
Engineer | $86,463 | $7,205 | $41.57 | 618,207 |
Staff Engineer | $113,160 | $9,430 | $54.40 | 277,011 |
Tool Engineer | $100,572 | $8,381 | $48.35 | 98,936 |
Manufacturing Engineer | $76,282 | $6,357 | $36.67 | 115,384 |
Process Engineer | $81,843 | $6,820 | $39.35 | 66,937 |
Product Engineer | $87,371 | $7,281 | $42.01 | 157,888 |
Here are the five companies hiring the most now:
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Meta | $174,955 | $84.11 | 1071 |
2 | Microsoft | $137,043 | $65.89 | 238 |
3 | VIAVI Solutions | $134,702 | $64.76 | 9 |
4 | Neuralink IT Solutions | $130,202 | $62.60 | 18 |
5 | Broadcom | $127,676 | $61.38 | 33 |
6 | Apple | $127,176 | $61.14 | 1160 |
7 | ARRIS | $123,969 | $59.60 | |
8 | Microsemi | $122,966 | $59.12 | |
9 | Finisar | $122,215 | $58.76 | |
10 | Formlabs | $121,734 | $58.53 | 11 |
11 | Autodesk | $121,325 | $58.33 | 61 |
12 | Apache | $120,667 | $58.01 | 1 |
13 | Infinera | $118,286 | $56.87 | 15 |
14 | VIA Technologies, Inc. | $117,885 | $56.68 | |
15 | Cadence Design Systems | $116,818 | $56.16 | 114 |
16 | Lucasfilm | $116,475 | $56.00 | |
17 | Brocade Services Corporation | $116,460 | $55.99 | |
18 | Synopsys | $116,336 | $55.93 | 94 |
19 | DNAnexus | $115,819 | $55.68 | |
20 | Amazon | $115,459 | $55.51 | 3265 |
Research and development engineer salaries can vary depending on the industry. In fact, our data shows that the technology, retail, and professional industries tend to offer much higher salaries for research and development engineers. For example, research and development engineers make a whopping average salary of $108,600 while working in the technology industry. Meanwhile, other people in this field are making $95,476 in the retail industry and $94,867 in the professional industry.
Research and development engineers may want to avoid working in the health care industry as it offers the lowest average salary of $94,349.
Rank | Industry | Average Salary | Hourly Rate |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Technology | $108,600 | $52.21 |
2 | Retail | $95,476 | $45.90 |
3 | Professional | $94,867 | $45.61 |
4 | Manufacturing | $94,820 | $45.59 |
5 | Health Care | $94,349 | $45.36 |
Experience Level | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate |
---|---|---|
Entry Level | $79,700 | $38.32 |
Mid Level | $97,300 | $46.78 |
Senior Level | $155,000 | $74.66 |
Compare salaries for individual cities or states with the national average.
Year | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | $101,000 | $48.33 | +1.9% |
2021 | $98,600 | $47.40 | +1.2% |
2020 | $97,400 | $46.83 | +1.7% |
2019 | $95,700 | $46.03 | +2.0% |
2018 | $93,900 | $45.13 | +0.7% |
Company | Job | Location | Date Added | Salary |
---|---|---|---|---|
Frontier Performance Polymers Corp. | R&D Plastic/Polymer Engineer | Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ | 06/01/2022 | $80,000 |
Honeywell | Quantinuum-R&D Optics Lab Engineer | Golden Valley, MN | 06/01/2022 | $79,000 |
Perspecta | Cybersecurity Engineer-Research & Development | Silver Spring, MD | 05/31/2022 | $82,618 |
Peraton Corporation | Cybersecurity Engineer-Research & Development | Silver Spring, MD | 05/31/2022 | $82,618 |
Honeywell | R&D Vibration Engineer | Broomfield, CO | 05/30/2022 | $75,600 |
Magnesium Elektron North America (Mena) | R&D Engineering | Tamaqua, PA | 05/28/2022 | $65,000 |
Nvidia | Research and Development Engineer-Autonomous Vehicles | New York, NY | 05/27/2022 | $126,000 |
Nvidia | Research and Development Engineer-Autonomous Vehicles | Holmdel, NJ | 05/27/2022 | $126,000 |
Endologix | Principal R&D Engineer | Milpitas, CA | 05/25/2022 | $150,000 |
Coorstek | R&D Engineer II | Golden, CO | 05/24/2022 | $85,000 |
California pays Research And Development Engineers the most in the United States, with an average salary of $121,949 per year, or $58.63 per hour.
You know if you are being paid fairly as a Research And Development Engineer if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you live in New Mexico you should be paid close to $115,840 per year.
Research And Development Manager gets paid the most. Research And Development Manager made a median salary of $124,756. The best-paid 10 percent make $148,000, while the lowest-paid 10 percent make $105,000.
Yes, R&D pays well. The average salary that research and development engineers make is around $70,000 in a year. However, this typical salary can range from $56,000 a year to over $90,000 in a year.
The average salary that research and development engineers make is around $70,000 in a year. However, this typical salary can range from $56,000 a year to over $90,000 in a year.
The range in salary level for research and development engineers depends on a variety of factors. These factors include experience and education, as well as location, industry, and company. There are numerous unique combinations that any person may have of these five factors that will influence their specific salary.
A developmental engineer makes around $85,000 a year. However, this salary can range from $70,000 a year to over $110,000 in a year.
The range in salary level for a developmental engineer depends on a variety of factors. These factors include experience and education, as well as location, industry, and company. There are numerous unique combinations that any person may have of these five factors that will influence their specific salary.
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