This guide is built from 52 live Engineering roles across the United States that Software Placement Group is recruiting for right now, each with a published base salary. Figures update as roles open and close. Last updated September 13, 2026.
What Engineering roles pay by city
| Location | Median base salary | Roles in sample |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | $108,000 | 6 |
| Waterloo, IA | $75,000 | 4 |
| La Vista, NE | $22,000 | 3 |
Only locations with at least three live roles are shown.
Job titles in this sample
FIELD SERVICE ENGINEER – Medical Laboratory · Senior Project Engineer – Food Processing · Senior Manufacturing Engineer – Aircraft · Industrial Engineer – Lean Manufacturing · Molding Engineer II – Injection Molding · Electrical Process Control Engineering Manager · Project Engineer (Mechanical) – Water Treatment · Continuous Improvement Engineer – Lean Manufacturing
What moves pay in these roles
- Company stage and size. Growth-stage companies often pay below the top of the range on base but weight the package toward equity and bonus.
- Location. The table above shows the difference between markets in this sample. Remote roles are usually benchmarked to a national range rather than the highest-paying city.
- Scope. Team size, quota, budget, or territory moves base pay more than years of experience alone.
- Total compensation. These figures are base salary only. Bonus, commission, and equity are on top, and in sales roles on-target earnings are often close to double the base.
Where do you sit in this range?
Upload your resumé and our AI matcher scores you against every open Engineering role, so you can see the ones you fit and what they pay.
How we calculate this: every figure comes from base salaries published on live Software Placement Group job postings. We take the midpoint of each posted range, then report the median and the 25th to 75th percentile. Roles without a published salary are excluded. This is a sample of 52 roles, not a national survey.