How much does an engineers, all other make?

The median engineers, all other salary in the United States is $122,930 per year ($59.10/hour). Salaries range from $66,810 (10th percentile) to $189,950 (90th percentile). There are 154,070 engineers, all other jobs in the U.S. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS.

Which state pays engineers, all others the most?

The highest paying state for engineers, all others is New Mexico at $162,070 median salary.

Is engineers, all other a good career?

Engineers, All Other employment is projected to grow 2.1% from 2024 to 2034 (as fast as average). There are approximately 9,300 job openings per year. Typical education required: Bachelor's degree.

What is the career ladder for engineers, all others?

The typical engineers, all other career ladder: Engineer I / II (0-4 yrs, $70-105k base + $4-12k bonus) → Sr Engineer (5-10 yrs, $110-155k base + $12-25k bonus + $10-40k RSUs (semi/tech)) → Staff / Principal Engineer (8-15 yrs, $155-215k base + $25-45k bonus + $40-120k RSUs) → Distinguished Engineer / Fellow (15+ yrs, $215-315k base + $50-100k bonus + $150-400k RSUs (semi) or $80-180k LTIP (defense)).

What certifications should engineers, all others get?

Top-ROI certifications for engineers, all others: PE (Professional Engineer) ($375-600 per exam + $150-400 state license fee); AWS Certified Welding Engineer (CWEng) or Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) ($1,065-1,435 exam + $500-2,000 prep); SPIE Fellow track / OSA Senior Member (optics) (Membership $150-350/yr; fellow candidacy is publication + service-based).

How do you negotiate a engineers, all other salary?

Anchor on documented market data (BLS median $122,930, p75 $158,090), specific outcomes you've delivered, and the specific band for your years of experience. Given 9 years of specialty engineering experience at ASML on EUV metrology, an active Secret clearance, 6 granted patents (4 as lead inventor), and a track record delivering 3 program milestones on schedule at Principal...

Engineers, All Other Salary

Q: What interview questions are asked for engineers, all other roles?

Common engineers, all other interview questions include: "Walk me through a specialty engineering problem you owned end-to-end.", "What simulation tool would you pick for this problem, and why?", "You have a defense program with a Secret clearance requirement and a 6-month schedule. Walk me through your first 30 days.". Interview format at top employers ranges from behavioral panels (STAR method) to technical case rounds — for example Lockheed Martin (Skunk Works, Rotary & Mission Systems, Space) typically uses 5-7 rounds over 8-16 weeks including clearance.

The median engineers, all other salary in the United States is $122,930 per year ($59.10/hour). Salaries range from $66,810 at the entry level to $189,950+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 154,070 engineers, all other jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to grow 2.1% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 · Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary

$122,930

per year

Hourly Rate

$59.10

per hour

Employment

154,070

jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile

$66,810

25th percentile

$90,970

Median

$122,930

75th percentile

$158,090

90th percentile

$189,950

Job Growth (2024-2034)

+2.1%

As fast as average

Annual Openings

9,300

jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

Bachelor's degree

Engineers, All Other Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for engineers, all others.

The 'Engineers, All Other' BLS bucket captures the specialty engineering roles that don't map cleanly to mechanical, electrical, chemical, or civil — optical engineers, acoustical engineers, ceramic engineers, robotics engineers outside standard BLS categories, ergonomic and human-factors engineers, welding engineers. It's a $122,930 median role (p10 $66,810 · p90 $189,950 · ~154,070 employed) that skews heavily toward aerospace, defense, semiconductor, and advanced materials. Entry $70-95k; established $110-155k; senior/principal $155-215k; staff/distinguished at Applied Materials, ASML, Lockheed, Northrop, and Intel Foundry $215-315k+ with clearance premiums, patent bonuses, and equity. Security-clearance-required roles (Secret, Top Secret, TS/SCI) add 10-25% on top.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Depth in one specialty physics stack

Optics (Zemax, CODE V, wavefront analysis), acoustics (FEA + BEM, Comsol, Actran), ceramics (phase diagrams, sintering, XRD), robotics (ROS2, MoveIt, ROS Industrial), ergonomics (RULA/REBA, biomechanics modeling), or welding (WPS/PQR, ASME IX). Hiring managers screen for one deep stack, not five shallow ones.

Simulation & modeling tools

Ansys (Mechanical, HFSS, Fluent), Comsol Multiphysics, MATLAB/Simulink, Python for numerical work. Most specialty engineering work is 60% simulation + design of experiments before anything is built.

Design of experiments (DOE) & statistical analysis

JMP or Minitab for DOE, factorial designs, response-surface methods. Advanced-node semi and aerospace both live on statistically-driven process characterization.

Prototyping & measurement

Bench setup, laser interferometry, acoustic chambers, tensile testing, robotic test cells, XRD/SEM for ceramics. You need to design the experiment and run it — not just interpret others' data.

GD&T + tolerance analysis

Precision optics, semiconductor lithography, and defense hardware all fail on the tolerance stack. ASME Y14.5 fluency is table stakes at ASML, KLA, Applied Materials, Corning.

Regulatory & standards fluency

MIL-STD (defense), AWS D1.1/ASME IX (welding), ISO 13485 (medical robotics), SEMI standards (semi tools), ITAR/EAR (export). Specialty engineering lives inside standards, not around them.

Cross-functional handoff (design → manufacturing)

Work with process engineers, technicians, quality, supply chain. The specialty engineer owns the physics; manufacturing owns the yield. A weak handoff kills programs.

Clearance eligibility (defense track)

US citizenship required for Secret / TS / TS/SCI. Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon (RTX), Boeing, and Honeywell Aerospace all pay 10-25% premium for cleared engineers.

How to Become a Engineers, All Other

1
Get a BS in a physics-adjacent engineering discipline
Optical / photonics engineering, materials science, engineering physics, mechatronics, biomedical, or an EE / ME with a specialty concentration. GPA 3.3+ helps for advanced-node semi and defense primes.
2
Land a specialty co-op or summer at a target employer
Applied Materials, KLA, Intel, ASML, Lockheed, Northrop, Boeing, Raytheon, Corning, 3M all run structured internships that convert at 55-75%. Pay $28-42/hr as an intern; conversion offer $75-95k base.
3
Take entry role as Engineer I in a specialty group
$70-95k base + $3-8k sign-on. Optical engineer, acoustical engineer, robotics engineer, welding engineer, ceramic engineer, ergonomics engineer. First 2-3 years: run experiments, characterize processes, build measurement expertise.
4
Get the specialty credential and one clearance if defense
PE if the state and specialty allow it; AWS CWEng / CWI for welding; OSA / SPIE fellowship track for optics; ASA membership for acoustics. If defense: apply for Secret at 2-4 years, TS at 5-8.
5
Promote to Sr Engineer → Staff → Principal → Distinguished / Fellow
Sr at 5-8 years ($110-155k). Staff / Principal at 8-14 ($155-215k). Distinguished or Fellow at 15+ ($215-315k+) — technical leadership without direct reports, publishing, patents, standards-committee work. Alternate manager fork (Sr Mgr → Director → VP Engineering) tops out $250-450k+.

Career Progression

Engineer I / II

0-4 yrs$70-105k base + $4-12k bonus

•Run bench experiments and characterization under senior guidance
•Own small feature-level design tasks (a subassembly, a fixture, a test protocol)
•Simulation setup + validation for a single physics domain
•Author engineering reports and DOE plans

Next: Sr Engineer at 4-7 years, once you own a program-level deliverable.

Sr Engineer

5-10 yrs$110-155k base + $12-25k bonus + $10-40k RSUs (semi/tech)

•Own a full subsystem end-to-end (design, simulate, prototype, characterize, release)
•Lead cross-functional teams of 3-6 engineers + technicians
•Represent the specialty in program design reviews (PDR, CDR)
•Mentor 1-3 junior engineers

Next: Staff / Principal at 8-14, or Engineering Manager at 8-12.

Staff / Principal Engineer

8-15 yrs$155-215k base + $25-45k bonus + $40-120k RSUs

•Own the technical roadmap for a specialty across multiple programs
•Set architecture standards, review high-risk designs, resolve escalations
•Publish + patent (target 2-4 patents/year at semi and aerospace primes)
•Represent the company on standards bodies (SEMI, OSA, ASA, AWS, ASME)

Next: Distinguished / Fellow at 15+ (IC track), or Sr Manager → Director (manager track).

Distinguished Engineer / Fellow

15+ yrs$215-315k base + $50-100k bonus + $150-400k RSUs (semi) or $80-180k LTIP (defense)

•Set multi-year technical direction for the specialty organization
•Company-wide technical authority; escalation point for hardest problems
•Publish and hold significant patent portfolio (10-50+ patents)
•External thought leadership — keynotes, board seats, standards leadership

Next: Chief Engineer, VP Engineering, or CTO track.

Manager / Sr Manager / Director / VP Engineering

12+ yrs$185-450k+ base + variable + equity + LTIP

•Own a specialty engineering org of 15-200+ engineers
•Budget, hiring, capital planning for lab and test infrastructure
•Partner with product management and program management on roadmaps
•Represent the specialty at C-suite and to customers (defense primes) or investors

Next: SVP Engineering, Chief Engineer, or Chief Technology Officer.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 16 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Walk me through a specialty engineering problem you owned end-to-end.technical

Structure the answer around the physics: (1) the requirement — what performance metric or process capability had to be hit, in numbers. (2) The design space you explored and what you eliminated with simulation before touching hardware. (3) The DOE or test plan you ran, and the specific measurements — laser interferometry for optics, tensile + Charpy for welding, XRD for ceramics, acoustic chamber SPL for acoustics. (4) The failure mode you didn't expect and how you diagnosed it. (5) The final release — yield or performance number, sign-off from manufacturing and QA. Weak answers describe tasks; strong answers describe root causes.

Q2. What simulation tool would you pick for this problem, and why?technical

Show tool fluency plus judgment about when simulation is overkill. Ansys Mechanical for structural, HFSS for RF, Fluent for CFD; Comsol Multiphysics when coupled physics matter (piezoelectric acoustics, thermal-mechanical); Zemax or CODE V for sequential optics, FRED or LightTools for non-sequential; MATLAB/Simulink for control-loop and system-level. Then say the honest thing hiring managers want to hear: 'For a first-order estimate I'd start with hand calculations and only move to FEA once the geometry justifies it — most tolerance-stack surprises show up in analytical work, not the mesh.'

Q3. You have a defense program with a Secret clearance requirement and a 6-month schedule. Walk me through your first 30 days.situational

Week 1: onboard on the classified network, get read-in to the program, and read the SOW plus the last two engineering review packages cover-to-cover. Week 2: map the technical requirements to the physics — where's the schedule risk (usually one test cell, one long-lead part, or one unfinished analysis). Week 3: convene a design review with the specialty leads. Week 4: publish a risk register with owners, dates, and mitigation options. Programs at Lockheed, Northrop, and Raytheon don't die from technical impossibility — they die from unmanaged schedule risk in month 4 that was visible in week 3.

Q4. How do you handle a manufacturing yield problem you're pulled into after design release?situational

First rule: don't blame the process without data. Get the yield data, wafer maps or defect Pareto in hand before saying anything. Second: run a fishbone with process engineering — is it design, tooling, material lot, operator, measurement system? Third: propose a targeted DOE that isolates one variable at a time; resist the temptation to change five things at once. Fourth: propose a design update only after the process levers are exhausted. Applied Materials, KLA, and Intel Foundry all care that you own the yield number without dumping it back on manufacturing.

Q5. Why this specialty engineering role instead of a generalist ME or EE seat?culture

The honest answer that resonates: you like problems where the physics is doing the hard work — optics, acoustics, ceramics, robotics kinematics, human-factors biomechanics — and you want to build depth that compounds over 15-20 years, not breadth that plateaus. Specialty engineers at Corning, 3M, ASML, and the defense primes hit senior compensation faster than generalists because the talent pool is smaller and the technical bar is higher. Say that plainly — hiring managers respect a candidate who understands the labor market and picked the specialty deliberately.

Resume Template — Engineer II (2-4 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Engineer II (2-4 yrs)

▸Owned optical subassembly for advanced-node lithography module; hit wavefront error < λ/20 RMS across full field, 3 months ahead of program milestone.
▸Ran 4 DOEs in Comsol + bench to characterize acoustic emission signature; reduced spec-limit exceedance from 8.2% to 1.1% at first-pass yield.
▸MS Optical Engineering + BS Physics (GPA 3.7). Secret clearance active since 2023. Zemax + Comsol + MATLAB + Python fluency.
▸$92k base + $8k bonus + $12k RSU. Author on 2 filed patents, 1 SPIE conference paper.

What Gets You Rejected

✗Can't defend a design decision without opening the FEA — hiring managers screen for engineers who own the physics, not the software.
✗No hands-on bench or measurement experience — pure simulation candidates get cut at Sr level.
✗Weak documentation: no engineering reports, no DOE writeups, no patent filings after 5+ years.
✗Ambiguous clearance status for defense roles — 'in process' is fine, 'expired 4 years ago' is a red flag.
✗Zero fluency in the target industry's standards (SEMI, MIL-STD, ASME IX, AWS D1.1, ISO 13485, SEMI S2).

Salary Negotiation Levers

✓Clearance (Secret adds 8-15%, TS adds 15-25%, TS/SCI with poly can add 25-40% at Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon).
✓Advanced-node semi (Applied Materials, KLA, ASML, Intel Foundry) — 15-30% premium over general industry for the same specialty.
✓Patent portfolio — 5+ granted patents move you up a level at semi and aerospace primes; ask for a patent bonus program if it's not standard.
✓PhD in specialty physics — worth $15-30k on base plus faster promotion clock at Corning, 3M, ASML, Applied Materials.
✓Publication + standards-committee work — negotiable as protected time (10-20% allocation) and travel budget, not just cash.
✓Sign-on to offset unvested equity when leaving Intel, Applied Materials, ASML, KLA — $30-150k standard at Sr and above.
✓RSU refresher cadence at semi (annual vs 2-year) — this is the real long-term compensation lever, negotiate before signing.

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✓ All 16 interview questions with expert answers
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✓ Cover letter templates specific to this occupation
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Engineers, All Other Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) →

Salary Map — Click a state for details

$76K

$162K■ No data

Top Paying States

Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.

State	Median	vs. National	Employment
New Mexico	$162,070	+31.8%	2,190
Alabama	$152,550	+24.1%	3,460
District of Columbia	$151,920	+23.6%	3,560
Virginia	$148,160	+20.5%	5,060
Alaska	$142,390	+15.8%	200
Washington	$134,570	+9.5%	3,580
Colorado	$132,590	+7.9%	2,540
New Jersey	$132,450	+7.7%	4,540
Massachusetts	$131,260	+6.8%	2,850
Idaho	$130,970	+6.5%	560

Showing 1–10 of 51

Engineers, All Other Salary by Metro Area

Metro Area	Median	vs. National
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$169,650	+38.0%
Lexington Park, MD	$166,230	+35.2%
Albuquerque, NM	$163,630	+33.1%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$159,800	+30.0%
Huntsville, AL	$155,630	+26.6%
Charlottesville, VA	$153,340	+24.7%
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ	$151,760	+23.5%
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$151,340	+23.1%
Anchorage, AK	$145,500	+18.4%
Kennewick-Richland, WA	$142,920	+16.3%

Showing 1–10 of 250

Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.

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A engineers, all other earning $122,930/year would need 485 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 521 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.

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📈 See how engineers, all other salaries have changed over the past decade.

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