How to hire a senior research engineer

How to hire a senior research engineer, step by step

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

What does a senior research engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior research 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 senior research engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior research 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 presents senior research engineer salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Research Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Research Engineer	Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, and test mechanical and thermal sensors and devices, including tools, engines, and machines.	$41-72
   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
   Chief Engineer	A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes... Show more	$31-85

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Python
   • Java
   • Project Management
   • Software Development
   • Data Analysis
   • C
   • C++
   • Research Projects
   • Linux
   • Adaptive
   • R
   • Prototyping
   • Signal Processing
   • Technical Reports

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage a proof-of-concept and prototyping program for a vehicle tagging and electronic tracking system.
   • Carry out ETL tasks using Java and Apache/Hadoop.
   • Design plastic and metal components for cells and batteries using Solidworks.
   • Select to travel to Malaysia to identify and resolve issues in filter prototyping and manufacture.
   • Develop test plans and set ups for imaging, chemical sensing, RF devices, and composite materials.
   • Project include optics, lasers, high-speed digital, high speed A2D, RF, liquid helium, etc.

   More senior research engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior research engineer job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior research engineer salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior research engineer in North Dakota may be lower than in California, and an entry-level senior research engineer usually earns less than a senior-level senior research engineer. Additionally, a senior research engineer with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior research engineer salary

   $115,047yearly

   $55.31 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior research engineer salary

   $87,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 26, 2025

   Average senior research engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$156,711	$75
   2	Washington	$135,945	$65
   3	District of Columbia	$116,985	$56
   4	Texas	$110,245	$53
   5	Massachusetts	$106,628	$51
   6	New York	$105,582	$51
   7	Illinois	$102,277	$49
   8	Connecticut	$102,084	$49
   9	Colorado	$99,984	$48
   10	Georgia	$97,359	$47
   11	Michigan	$96,299	$46
   12	Minnesota	$94,108	$45
   13	Pennsylvania	$92,729	$45
   14	Indiana	$89,996	$43
   15	Alabama	$89,235	$43
   16	Ohio	$85,181	$41
   17	Kansas	$78,565	$38

   Average senior research engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Netflix	$173,715	$83.52	9
   2	Houzz	$158,745	$76.32
   3	eBay	$158,183	$76.05	15
   4	Twitter	$156,421	$75.20	6
   5	Apple	$153,787	$73.94	388
   6	Walmart	$152,900	$73.51	7
   7	Microsoft	$152,752	$73.44	341
   8	Amazon	$148,484	$71.39	351
   9	Palo Alto Networks	$144,013	$69.24	95
   10	Vicarious	$143,742	$69.11
   11	MySpace NYC	$142,782	$68.65
   12	Automattic	$141,740	$68.14	1
   13	Dolby Laboratories	$141,264	$67.92	3
   14	NVIDIA	$141,169	$67.87	206
   15	VMware	$138,671	$66.67
   16	McKinsey & Company Inc	$137,260	$65.99
   17	Zynga	$135,701	$65.24
   18	Adobe	$135,593	$65.19	108
   19	Fortinet	$134,990	$64.90	9
   20	Tencent	$134,498	$64.66	20

4. Writing a senior research engineer job description

   A senior research engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a senior research engineer job description:

   Senior research engineer job description example

   Minimum qualifications:
   
   + Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
   
   + 5 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages, and with data structures or algorithms.
   
   + 3 years of experience testing, maintaining, or launching software products, and 1 year of experience with software design and architecture.
   
   Preferred qualifications:
   
   + Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
   
   + 1 year of experience in a Technical Leadership role.
   
   + Experience with applied cryptography.
   
   + Experience developing protocols.
   
   + Experience developing accessible technologies.
   
   At Google, research-focused Software Engineers are embedded throughout the company, allowing them to setup large-scale tests and deploy promising ideas quickly and broadly. Ideas may come from internal projects as well as from collaborations with research programs at partner universities and technical institutes all over the world.
   
   From creating experiments and prototyping implementations to designing new architectures, engineers work on real-world problems including artificial intelligence, data mining, natural language processing, hardware and software performance analysis, improving compilers for mobile platforms, as well as core search and much more. But you stay connected to your research roots as an active contributor to the wider research community by partnering with universities and publishing papers.
   
   Google's Privacy Sandbox is a company-wide effort to make it impossible to track users across sites and apps at scale. You will work with anti-fraud teams around the world to identify how their abilities are impacted by these changes, and invent new technologies that allow us to concurrently improve privacy and safety.
   
   You will also help us develop new protocols for privacy-preserving feedback mechanisms, design systems for interactive and differentially private analysis, and more. You will thrive at the bleeding edge of research and globe-scale design and deployment, collaborating with the world's most advanced anti-fraud teams and privacy researchers. You will help with the design of protocols employing blind signatures, zero-knowledge proofs, and more.
   
   Additional Information:
   
   (Colorado only*) Minimum full-time salary range between $142,000 - $153,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. *Note: Disclosure as required by sb19-085 (8-5-20) of the minimum salary compensation for this role when being hired into our offices in Colorado.
   
   + Develop and refine approaches for critical anti-fraud use cases, work with product and engineering to prototype and test these approaches in the field.
   
   + Collaborate with the broader Google research community to solicit expertise that augments your own, lead these collaborations to fruition and impact.
   
   + Develop expertise in relevant anti-fraud disciplines and associated use cases and requirements, internalize and help refine our privacy threat model.
   
   + Contribute to standards and relevant discussions in the IETF, W3C, and similar bodies.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right senior research 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 senior research engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit senior research engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit senior research 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.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to 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 senior research engineer

   Once you've selected the best senior research 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.

   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.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is 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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