How much does an operations engineer make?

The average operations engineer salary in the United States is $91,522. Operations engineer salaries typically range between $63,000 and $132,000 yearly. The average hourly rate for operations engineers is $44.0 per hour. Operations engineer salary is impacted by location, education, and experience. Operations engineers earn the highest average salary in California.

Operations engineer salary

Q: What state pays Operations Engineers the most?

California pays Operations Engineers the most in the United States, with an average salary of $113,365 per year, or $54.50 per hour.

Q: How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as an operations engineer?

You know if you are being paid fairly as an operations engineer if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you live in District of Columbia you should be paid close to $106,733 per year.

Q: Do engineers make 300K?

No, engineers do not typically make 300K. While the starting salary for engineers is high, average earnings in the US are typically between $67,000 - $156,000 a year. The average 2021 salary for engineers is $70,634. Income varies dramatically based on which field of engineering you are in and where you live.

Q: Do operating engineers make good money?

Yes, operating engineers make good money. Operating engineers make $89,000 a year, on average ($43.03 an hour). However, there is a good deal of variability in how much an operating engineer can make, which can range from as low as $66,000 a year to as high as $120,000 a year. Factors such as location and industry impact how much an operating engineer can make.

Q: What are the highest-paid engineers?

The highest-paid engineers are those in managerial positions such as senior or principal engineers. The field of engineering and location also determines the highest-earning positions. A high salary for an engineer would be around $100k. The average salary of an engineer is $74,000 a year. There are many different types of engineers, however, and the range in pay can start as low as $64,000 a year to as high as $156,000 a year.

Quoted expert

Michael Rudisill

Average operations engineer salary

$91,522

$44 hourly rate

Entry-level operations engineer salary

$63,000 yearly salary

Updated December 15, 2025

Understanding Operations Engineer Salaries

The average salary for an Operations Engineer is around $91,522 annually, translating to approximately $44 per hour. Salaries in this role can vary significantly based on factors such as experience, location, and industry. For instance, entry-level operations engineers typically earn lower salaries, while those with more experience can command higher wages.

In addition, geographical location plays a crucial role. States like California and New York often feature higher salaries due to the demand for skilled engineers. According to salary estimates from various sources, positions in metropolitan areas tend to offer competitive compensation.

Salary by Experience Level

Entry-level engineers may start around $70,000, while those with 5-10 years of experience can earn upwards of $100,000. Senior engineers and those in leadership roles can potentially exceed $120,000, depending on their specific expertise and responsibilities.

Ultimately, understanding the salary structure for Operations Engineers can assist job seekers in negotiating their salaries and selecting positions that align with their financial expectations.

On this page

Operations engineer salary by:

Let Zippia find your next operations engineer job

Let Zippia find your next operations engineer job

Where can an Operations Engineer earn more?

Compare salary by location

147k

127k

107k

87k

67k

47k

Columbus, OH$118,147

Columbus, IN$77,200

Compare salary by company

146k

126k

106k

86k

Apple$131,521

Best Buy$115,655

Operations engineer salaries by experience level

Operations engineer salary estimates from across the web

Based on the latest salary information compiled by Zippia, Salary.com, Indeed, Ziprecruiter and Payscale, the average salary for an operations engineer typically falls between $81,322 and $100,731.

zippia

$91,522yearly

indeed[1]

$100,731yearly

Salary.com[2]

$93,751yearly

ZipRecruiter[3]

$85,029yearly

payscale[4]

$81,322yearly

Average operations engineer salary by state

The highest-paying states for operations engineers are California, Maryland, and West Virginia. The lowest average operations engineer salary states are Montana, Maine, and South Dakota.

State view
County view

Average salary:

Highest paying states for operations engineers

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	California	$113,365	$54.50
2	District of Columbia	$106,733	$51.31
3	Washington	$94,004	$45.19
4	Texas	$90,590	$43.55
5	Nevada	$92,471	$44.46
6	Oregon	$90,381	$43.45
7	West Virginia	$94,477	$45.42
8	North Carolina	$87,085	$41.87
9	New Mexico	$90,912	$43.71
10	Virginia	$89,856	$43.20
11	Maryland	$95,800	$46.06
12	North Dakota	$82,468	$39.65
13	Arizona	$91,595	$44.04
14	Illinois	$87,602	$42.12
15	Ohio	$86,504	$41.59
16	Tennessee	$86,396	$41.54
17	Rhode Island	$83,899	$40.34
18	Michigan	$83,470	$40.13
19	Utah	$81,586	$39.22
20	Georgia	$84,751	$40.75
21	Delaware	$89,950	$43.25
22	Alaska	$85,162	$40.94
23	New York	$92,568	$44.50
24	Pennsylvania	$82,082	$39.46
25	Idaho	$81,375	$39.12
26	Connecticut	$89,393	$42.98
27	Louisiana	$83,178	$39.99
28	South Carolina	$82,363	$39.60
29	Minnesota	$82,199	$39.52
30	Colorado	$81,833	$39.34
31	Alabama	$77,628	$37.32
32	Oklahoma	$83,105	$39.95
33	Indiana	$76,948	$36.99
34	Massachusetts	$85,108	$40.92
35	New Jersey	$86,585	$41.63
36	Wyoming	$71,394	$34.32
37	Missouri	$78,412	$37.70
38	Florida	$73,896	$35.53
39	Nebraska	$74,008	$35.58
40	Kansas	$76,082	$36.58
41	Wisconsin	$72,016	$34.62
42	Hawaii	$61,114	$29.38
43	Vermont	$64,395	$30.96
44	Kentucky	$72,934	$35.06
45	Montana	$67,508	$32.46
46	Mississippi	$73,737	$35.45
47	New Hampshire	$75,269	$36.19
48	Iowa	$69,040	$33.19
49	Maine	$66,085	$31.77
50	Arkansas	$64,832	$31.17
51	South Dakota	$65,791	$31.63

Top operations engineer jobs near you

Highest paying cities for operations engineers

The highest-paying cities for operations engineers are San Francisco, CA, Washington, DC, and Seattle, WA.

Rank	City	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	San Francisco, CA	$118,147	$56.80
2	Washington, DC	$106,768	$51.33
3	Seattle, WA	$94,700	$45.53
4	New York, NY	$93,126	$44.77
5	Phoenix, AZ	$91,849	$44.16
6	Austin, TX	$91,188	$43.84
7	Richmond, VA	$89,880	$43.21
8	Raleigh, NC	$87,751	$42.19
9	Chicago, IL	$87,703	$42.16
10	Mount Laurel, NJ	$87,100	$41.88
11	Columbus, OH	$86,904	$41.78
12	Atlanta, GA	$84,797	$40.77
13	Boston, MA	$84,769	$40.75
14	Detroit, MI	$83,787	$40.28
15	Philadelphia, PA	$82,513	$39.67
16	Saint Paul, MN	$82,310	$39.57
17	Denver, CO	$81,647	$39.25
18	Columbus, IN	$77,200	$37.12

Operations Engineers are the most in-demand in these five cities:

Operations engineer salary details

An operations engineer's salary ranges from $63,000 a year at the 10th percentile to $132,000 at the 90th percentile.

Average operations engineer salary graph, trends, and summary

What is an operations engineer's salary?

Percentile	Annual salary	Monthly salary	Hourly rate
90th Percentile	$132,000	$11,000	$63
75th Percentile	$111,000	$9,250	$53
Average	$91,522	$7,627	$44
25th Percentile	$75,000	$6,250	$36
10th Percentile	$63,000	$5,250	$30

Highest paying operations engineer jobs

The highest paying types of operations engineers are senior principal engineer, contracting engineer, and team lead engineer.

Job title	Annual salary	Monthly salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
Engineer	$92,076	$7,673	$44.27	618,207
Team Lead Engineer	$114,867	$9,572	$55.22	235,155
Chief Engineer	$108,050	$9,004	$51.95	88,473
Staff Engineer	$107,530	$8,961	$51.70	277,011
Facility Engineer	$89,623	$7,469	$43.09	94,268
Building Engineer	$76,446	$6,370	$36.75	13,440

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

Michael Rudisill

Department Head and Professor of Engineering Technology, Northern Michigan University

From what we've seen, salaries haven't been reduced, even though demand is down. I would expect wages and salary progression to remain strong as the need for engineering will only continue to grow.

Top companies hiring operations engineers now:

Which companies pay operations engineers the most?

Operations engineer salaries at Apple and Airbnb are the highest-paying according to our most recent salary estimates. In addition, the average operations engineer salary at companies like Meta and Bunge are highly competitive.

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate
1	Apple	$131,521	$63.23
2	Airbnb	$128,272	$61.67
3	Meta	$127,587	$61.34
4	Bunge	$126,695	$60.91
5	Yelp	$124,731	$59.97
6	DocuSign	$121,889	$58.60
7	Unity Technologies	$121,493	$58.41
8	Nike	$120,024	$57.70
9	Kaiser Permanente	$119,506	$57.45
10	Walmart	$119,467	$57.44
11	One Legal	$119,335	$57.37
12	Occidental Petroleum	$119,262	$57.34
13	Renaissance Learning	$119,093	$57.26
14	Workday	$118,984	$57.20
15	Grubhub	$118,569	$57.00
16	Qualtrics	$117,940	$56.70
17	Neiman Marcus Group	$117,506	$56.49
18	Shutterfly	$117,111	$56.30
19	Google	$117,008	$56.25
20	Best Buy	$115,655	$55.60

Wage gap by gender, race and education

$92,000$91,200$90,400$89,600$88,800$88,000

MaleFemale

Operations Engineer salary by industry

The average operations engineer salary varies across industries:

The average operations engineer salary in the technology industry is $100,087, the highest of any industry.
The average operations engineer salary in the finance industry is $95,640.
Operations engineers in the hospitality industry earn an average salary of $87,252, the lowest of any industry.

Highest paying industries for operations engineers

Rank	Industry	Average salary	Hourly rate
1	Technology	$100,087	$48.12
2	Media	$95,640	$45.98
3	Manufacturing	$95,262	$45.80
4	Energy	$93,993	$45.19
5	Finance	$92,941	$44.68
6	Real Estate	$92,438	$44.44
7	Construction	$89,155	$42.86
8	Telecommunication	$87,438	$42.04
9	Hospitality	$87,252	$41.95

High paying operations engineer jobs

Operations engineer salary trends

The average operations engineer salary has risen by $11,095 over the last ten years. In 2014, the average operations engineer earned $80,427 annually, but today, they earn $91,522 a year. That works out to a 7% change in pay for operations engineers over the last decade.

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

Average operations engineer salary over time

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

Operations engineer salary by year

Year	Avg. salary	Hourly rate	% Change
2025	$91,500	$44.00	+1.9%
2024	$89,800	$43.16	+1.2%
2023	$88,700	$42.64	+1.7%
2022	$87,200	$41.91	+2.0%
2021	$85,500	$41.09	+0.7%

Recently added operations engineer salaries

Company	Job	Location	Date added	Salary
Astreya	Server Operations Engineer II	San Jose, CA	06/30/2025	$66,120
Blue Origin	Training Operations Engineer II	Seattle, WA	06/30/2025	$96,310
Asmglobal	Building Operating Engineer (U)-Lacc)	Los Angeles, CA	06/30/2025	$85,191
Vast	Staff Mission Operations Engineer	Long Beach, CA	06/29/2025	$155,000
Open	Full Stack Engineer, Operate	New York, NY	06/29/2025	$131,000
Coreweave	Operations Engineer, Fleet Reliability	Richmond, VA	06/29/2025	$91,000
Stratolaunch	FTS Operations Engineer	Mojave, CA	06/29/2025	$80,000
ZP Group	Payload Operations Engineer	Lanham, MD	06/29/2025	$70,000
Five Rings LLC	Campus 2025-Trading Operations Engineer	New York, NY	06/29/2025	$225,000
Neheadstart	Radio Operations Engineer	Lincoln, NE	06/29/2025	$50,130

Operations engineer salary FAQs

What state pays Operations Engineers the most?

How do I know if I'm being paid fairly as an operations engineer?

Do engineers make 300K?

Do operating engineers make good money?

What are the highest-paid engineers?

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

Search for operations engineer jobs

Updated December 15, 2025

Browse architecture and engineering jobs