The Sponsor File

Hardware Engineer — H-1B filed wages

2,196 certified filings · FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3)

Reported wages are what employers filed with the Department of Labor — not actual take-home pay. One LCA is not one job.

Median filed wage

DOL LCA · FY2025
$139,050
n = 295filings with a wage

FY2025 median, from the 295 filings that reported a wage (of 2,196 certified filings in total) across all employers and levels. DOL LCA · FY2025

Fiscal yearFiled wageWage sample (n)
FY2026 (through Q3)$153,413
median of 206
206
FY2025$139,050
median of 295
295
FY2024$145,778
median of 312
312
FY2023$126,000
median of 419
419
FY2022$129,781
median of 530
530
FY2021$117,645
median of 434
434

How these wages are computed · All cities · All job titles

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 · Basis certified filings only, median not average

By level — this is the number that actually applies to you

DOL LCA · FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3)

Senior Hardware Engineer filings (n = 467) have a median -12% above the 1,392 filings with no level stated. A single figure for “Hardware Engineer” averages those together, which overstates the junior end and understates the senior end. We never merge them.

Level as filedFiled wageWage sample (n)
Junior
2 filings — too few for a median
2
Associate
9 filings — too few for a median
9
(unstated)$135,610
median of 1,392
1,392
Senior$119,434
median of 467
467
Lead$122,699
median of 12
12
Staff$132,433
median of 196
196
Principal$178,000
median of 31
31
Level 1$97,650
median of 17
17
Level 2$119,000
median of 49
49
Level 3$131,100
median of 18
18
Level 4
2 filings — too few for a median
2
Level 5$240,240
1 filing
1

“Level as filed” is taken from the job title on the filing itself — we do not infer a level that the employer did not write down. Rows below 10filings show the count only; a median from a handful of filings is not a market rate. “(unstated)” means the title carried no level, not that the role is junior.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035, level read from the job title as filed) ·Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) · Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis certified filings only; medians, not averages

Employers filing the most Hardware Engineer roles

top 25 by volume
EmployerFiled wageWage sample (n)
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.$108,930
median of 485
485
Microsoft Corporation$160,900
median of 239
239
Google LLC$175,000
median of 239
239
Intel Corporation$120,976
median of 136
136
Cisco Systems, Inc.$133,300
median of 107
107
Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.$126,464
median of 67
67
L&T Technology Services Limited$88,500
median of 66
66
Sambanova Systems, Inc.$150,400
median of 44
44
Tesla, Inc.$177,500
median of 42
42
Capgemini America Inc$126,277
median of 25
25
Arista Networks, Inc.$160,426
median of 24
24
Meta$186,000
median of 24
24
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.$100,256
median of 23
23
Cruise LLC$185,058
median of 21
21
Juniper Networks, Inc.$130,894
median of 19
19
General Motors Company$138,522
median of 17
17
LER TechForce, LLC$85,966
median of 15
15
NVIDIA Corporation$165,763
median of 14
14
Waymo LLC$194,000
median of 14
14
Nokia of America Corporation$154,094
median of 12
12
Micron Technology, Inc.$135,000
median of 11
11
SK Hynix NAND Product Solutions Corp$98,155
median of 10
10
DoorDash, Inc.
9 filings — too few for a median
9
Dexcom, Inc.
9 filings — too few for a median
9
Robert Bosch LLC
8 filings — too few for a median
8

Ranked by number of filings, not by pay and not by quality. This is not a “best employers” list. 292 employers in total filed for this role; the 25 above are those with the most filings. Those with at least 10 certified filings have their own page; the rest are counted here but do not.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis filings counted across the whole coverage period, not one year

What this page does not cover

We build a page only for roles we can classify with confidence. The filings we do not classify are mostly three things: employer-internal job codes (“Manager JC50”), generic words that would make a useless page (“Analyst”, “Associate”), and spellings that appear only a handful of times. None of those can be grouped reliably —so we do not guess. To see every role at one company, use its employer page.

For the record: 866,533 of 3,034,814 certified filings (28.6%) reduce to one of our 29 role pages. That percentage on its own would mislead — the remainder is not a missing 71% of the job market, it is mostly text that cannot become a page.

Source U.S. Department of Labor — OFLC LCA disclosure files (ETA-9035) · Coverage FY2021–FY2026 (through Q3) ·Updated 2026-08-28 ·Basis certified filings with a job title, across the whole coverage period