How much does a mechanical design engineer make?

The average mechanical design engineer salary in the United States is $75,821. Mechanical design engineer salaries typically range between $59,000 and $96,000 yearly. The average hourly rate for mechanical design engineers is $36.45 per hour. Mechanical design engineer salary is impacted by location, education, and experience. Mechanical design engineers earn the highest average salary in California.

Mechanical design engineer salary

Q: What state pays Mechanical Design Engineers the most?

California pays Mechanical Design Engineers the most in the United States, with an average salary of $98,731 per year, or $47.47 per hour.

Q: How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as a mechanical design engineer?

You know if you are being paid fairly as a mechanical design engineer if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you live in Washington you should be paid close to $90,735 per year.

Q: How much do mechanical designers make?

Mechanical designers make $64,000 a year, on average. The range, however, can start as low as $51,000 to as high as $125,000 a year. Factors such as experience, company type, and location impact how much a mechanical designer can earn.

Q: How much do mechanical engineers start off making?

Mechanical engineers start off making $64,501 a year, on average. The range and what a mechanical engineer can make just starting out begins from as little as $48,000 a year to as much as $70,000 a year. Factors such as location and company type impact where on the pay scale a mechanical engineer will land.

Quoted expert

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Average mechanical design engineer salary

$75,821

$36.45 hourly rate

Entry-level mechanical design engineer salary

$59,000 yearly salary

Updated December 15, 2025

Understanding Mechanical Design Engineer Salaries

The salary for mechanical design engineers averages around $75,821 annually, translating to approximately $36 per hour. Factors influencing salary include geographic location, years of experience, and industry specialization. For instance, engineers in high-cost living states often command higher salaries due to increased demand for skilled professionals.

Salary by Experience Level

As mechanical design engineers gain experience, their salaries typically rise. Entry-level positions may start at around $60,000, while seasoned professionals with specialized skills can earn upwards of $90,000 annually. This progression reflects the growing complexity of responsibilities and expertise required in the field.

Highest Paying States

States such as California, Texas, and Massachusetts offer the highest salaries for mechanical design engineers, with average earnings exceeding $80,000 annually. These regions also provide a wealth of job opportunities, making them attractive destinations for aspiring engineers.

Job Opportunities

Mechanical design engineers can find employment across various industries, including aerospace, automotive, and manufacturing. The demand for innovative products ensures a steady need for skilled professionals, presenting numerous job opportunities that cater to varying expertise and interests.

On this page

Mechanical design engineer salary by:

Let Zippia find your next mechanical design engineer job

Let Zippia find your next mechanical design engineer job

Where can a Mechanical Design Engineer earn more?

Compare salary by location

134k

114k

94k

74k

54k

34k

Columbus, OH$106,784

Lenexa, KS$63,966

Compare salary by company

166k

146k

126k

106k

86k

66k

Meta$144,418

Tesla$95,630

Mechanical design engineer salaries by experience level

Mechanical design engineer salary estimates from across the web

Based on the latest salary information compiled by Zippia, Salary.com, Glassdoor, Ziprecruiter, SalaryExpert and Payscale, the average salary for a mechanical design engineer typically falls between $55,681 and $108,746.

zippia

$75,821yearly

glassdoor[1]

$108,746yearly

Salary.com[2]

$55,681yearly

ZipRecruiter[3]

$91,578yearly

payscale[4]

$76,901yearly

SalaryExpert[5]

$107,008yearly

Average mechanical design engineer salary by state

The highest-paying states for mechanical design engineers are California, Washington, and Alaska. The lowest average mechanical design engineer salary states are North Carolina, Iowa, and Kansas.

State view
County view

Average salary:

Highest paying states for mechanical design engineers

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	Washington	$90,735	$43.62
2	California	$98,731	$47.47
3	Arizona	$82,258	$39.55
4	Massachusetts	$85,746	$41.22
5	Oregon	$81,532	$39.20
6	New Hampshire	$79,096	$38.03
7	Alaska	$87,539	$42.09
8	Nevada	$84,270	$40.51
9	Connecticut	$78,911	$37.94
10	District of Columbia	$85,033	$40.88
11	New Mexico	$78,651	$37.81
12	Colorado	$77,267	$37.15
13	Delaware	$75,865	$36.47
14	Texas	$74,419	$35.78
15	Michigan	$72,484	$34.85
16	Illinois	$76,004	$36.54
17	West Virginia	$75,593	$36.34
18	Maine	$75,789	$36.44
19	Utah	$71,832	$34.53
20	Maryland	$77,860	$37.43
21	Idaho	$73,275	$35.23
22	Georgia	$72,903	$35.05
23	Montana	$73,977	$35.57
24	Alabama	$69,385	$33.36
25	Rhode Island	$72,627	$34.92
26	New York	$75,508	$36.30
27	Virginia	$72,662	$34.93
28	Tennessee	$71,576	$34.41
29	Wyoming	$67,940	$32.66
30	Minnesota	$70,259	$33.78
31	Louisiana	$73,518	$35.35
32	Vermont	$69,406	$33.37
33	Ohio	$69,115	$33.23
34	Indiana	$68,886	$33.12
35	Florida	$70,121	$33.71
36	South Carolina	$68,816	$33.08
37	New Jersey	$73,455	$35.31
38	Wisconsin	$66,125	$31.79
39	Hawaii	$72,103	$34.66
40	Pennsylvania	$67,849	$32.62
41	Nebraska	$68,058	$32.72
42	North Carolina	$64,962	$31.23
43	Kentucky	$66,002	$31.73
44	Iowa	$64,443	$30.98
45	Oklahoma	$66,441	$31.94
46	North Dakota	$63,428	$30.49
47	Missouri	$67,190	$32.30
48	Mississippi	$65,243	$31.37
49	Kansas	$63,832	$30.69
50	Arkansas	$59,678	$28.69
51	South Dakota	$57,744	$27.76

Top mechanical design engineer jobs near you

Highest paying cities for mechanical design engineers

The highest-paying cities for mechanical design engineers are San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, and Sparks, NV.

Rank	City	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	San Francisco, CA	$106,784	$51.34
2	Seattle, WA	$91,124	$43.81
3	Sparks, NV	$85,971	$41.33
4	Attleboro, MA	$85,814	$41.26
5	Washington, DC	$85,079	$40.90
6	Phoenix, AZ	$82,465	$39.65
7	Chicago, IL	$76,133	$36.60
8	New York, NY	$75,598	$36.35
9	Austin, TX	$74,956	$36.04
10	Atlanta, GA	$73,000	$35.10
11	Rochester Hills, MI	$72,596	$34.90
12	Greenville, SC	$69,035	$33.19
13	Kokomo, IN	$68,937	$33.14
14	Columbus, OH	$68,859	$33.11
15	Miami, FL	$68,766	$33.06
16	Saint Louis, MO	$67,464	$32.43
17	Milwaukee, WI	$66,094	$31.78
18	Greenville, NC	$65,493	$31.49
19	Lenexa, KS	$63,966	$30.75

Mechanical Design Engineers are the most in-demand in these five cities:

Mechanical design engineer salary details

A mechanical design engineer's salary ranges from $59,000 a year at the 10th percentile to $96,000 at the 90th percentile.

Average mechanical design engineer salary graph, trends, and summary

What is a mechanical design engineer's salary?

Percentile	Annual salary	Monthly salary	Hourly rate
90th Percentile	$96,000	$8,000	$46
75th Percentile	$86,000	$7,167	$41
Average	$75,821	$6,318	$36
25th Percentile	$66,000	$5,500	$32
10th Percentile	$59,000	$4,917	$28

Highest paying mechanical design engineer jobs

The highest paying types of mechanical design engineers are lead design engineer, staff engineer, and senior design engineer.

Job title	Annual salary	Monthly salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
Engineer	$92,076	$7,673	$44.27	618,207
Product Engineer	$89,645	$7,470	$43.10	157,888
Staff Engineer	$107,530	$8,961	$51.70	277,011
Equipment Engineer	$97,539	$8,128	$46.89	108,449
Tool Engineer	$101,135	$8,428	$48.62	98,936
Development Engineer	$93,206	$7,767	$44.81	224,881

How would you rate the starting salaries for mechanical design engineers, as well as the prospects for salary advancement?

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center (MCERC), Idaho State University

Starting salaries for new engineers have been competitive for many years. Engineers progress on two different pathways: technical and managerial, leading to different pay scales and careers.

Top companies hiring mechanical design engineers now:

Which companies pay mechanical design engineers the most?

Mechanical design engineer salaries at Meta and Apple are the highest-paying according to our most recent salary estimates. In addition, the average mechanical design engineer salary at companies like Zoox and NVIDIA are highly competitive.

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate
1	Meta	$144,418	$69.43
2	Apple	$126,295	$60.72
3	Zoox	$119,018	$57.22
4	NVIDIA	$116,040	$55.79
5	Koch Industries	$112,639	$54.15
6	Genentech	$106,306	$51.11
7	Western Digital	$104,627	$50.30
8	Amazon	$103,279	$49.65
9	Texas Instruments	$102,483	$49.27
10	Joby Aviation	$102,381	$49.22
11	Rivian	$101,176	$48.64
12	Lam Research	$101,048	$48.58
13	Finisar	$100,834	$48.48
14	Kiewit	$100,436	$48.29
15	KLA	$100,288	$48.22
16	Harley-Davidson	$98,729	$47.47
17	Intuitive Surgical	$98,587	$47.40
18	Altra Industrial Motion	$97,787	$47.01
19	Nikola Motor	$96,315	$46.31
20	Tesla	$95,630	$45.98

Wage gap by gender, race and education

$76,000$75,600$75,200$74,800$74,400$74,000

MaleFemale

Mechanical Design Engineer salary by industry

The average mechanical design engineer salary varies across industries:

The average mechanical design engineer salary in the automotive industry is $87,483, the highest of any industry.
The average mechanical design engineer salary in the finance industry is $81,383.
Mechanical design engineers in the professional industry earn an average salary of $76,730, the lowest of any industry.

Highest paying industries for mechanical design engineers

Rank	Industry	Average salary	Hourly rate
1	Automotive	$87,483	$42.06
2	Technology	$81,383	$39.13
3	Energy	$78,869	$37.92
4	Transportation	$78,474	$37.73
5	Manufacturing	$78,256	$37.62
6	Professional	$76,730	$36.89

High paying mechanical design engineer jobs

Mechanical design engineer salary trends

The average mechanical design engineer salary has risen by $9,192 over the last ten years. In 2014, the average mechanical design engineer earned $66,629 annually, but today, they earn $75,821 a year. That works out to a 7% change in pay for mechanical design engineers over the last decade.

Compare mechanical design engineer salaries for cities or states with the national average over time.

Average mechanical design engineer salary over time

Compare mechanical design engineer salaries for individual cities or states with the national average.

Mechanical design engineer salary by year

Year	Avg. salary	Hourly rate	% Change
2025	$75,800	$36.45	+1.9%
2024	$74,400	$35.75	+1.2%
2023	$73,500	$35.32	+1.7%
2022	$72,200	$34.72	+2.0%
2021	$70,800	$34.04	+0.7%

Recently added mechanical design engineer salaries

Company	Job	Location	Date added	Salary
Jeppesen	Mechanical Design Engineer Associate, or Experienced)	Berkeley, MO	06/30/2025	$95,200
Medtronic	Principal Mechanical Design Engineer	North Haven, CT	06/30/2025	$134,400
Blue Origin	Mechanical Design Engineer III-New Glenn Stage 2 & PA	Seattle, WA	06/30/2025	$117,498
Astrion	Mechanical Design Engineer	Toone, TN	06/30/2025	$91,000
Perspecta	Mechanical Design Engineer	Monrovia, CA	06/29/2025	$80,000
Vast	Mechanical Design Engineer, Electronics Packaging	Long Beach, CA	06/29/2025	$100,000
Actalent	Mechanical Design Engineer	Sioux Falls, SD	06/29/2025	$90,304
Actalent	Mechanical Design Engineer	Wichita, KS	06/29/2025	$85,000
Mk North America	Mechanical Design Engineer	Bloomfield, CT	06/28/2025	$60,000
Actalent	Mechanical Design Engineer	Newton, NJ	06/28/2025	$55,000

Mechanical design engineer salary FAQs

What state pays Mechanical Design Engineers the most?

How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as a mechanical design engineer?

How much do mechanical designers make?

How much do mechanical engineers start off making?

Have more questions? See all answers to common architecture and engineering questions.

Search for mechanical design engineer jobs

Updated December 15, 2025

Browse architecture and engineering jobs