01 — MethodologyHow to read these numbersThere is no federal wage series called “test engineer,” and any test engineer salary search should absorb that before reading a single number. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program codes the person who runs a hot fire, qualifies an avionics board, or flies a test card into one of three series depending on what they test: 17-2199, engineers, all other (154,070 jobs, May 2025 median $122,930), 17-2141, mechanical engineers (296,810 jobs, median $104,110), and 17-2071, electrical engineers (198,750 jobs, median $120,630). Flight test engineers with an aero degree usually land in 17-2011, aerospace engineers (67,710 jobs, median $134,960). All four are shown here because a launch-site test group hires from all four.The 17-2199 series is the spine of this page because it is the residual code, which is where test, integration, and validation titles that fit no discipline go. Its May 2025 distribution runs $66,810 at the 10th percentile, $90,970 at the 25th, $122,930 at the median, $158,090 at the 75th, and $189,950 at the 90th. The industry cuts matter more than the national line: aerospace product and parts manufacturing (NAICS 3364) employs 5,400 engineers-all-other at a $124,340 median, 8,950 electrical engineers at $141,160, and 12,060 mechanical engineers at $112,900. Semiconductor manufacturing (3344) pays the 17-2199 series $132,760; testing laboratories and services (5413-80), the industry that literally sells test, pays it $105,040.On top of the federal spine we layered two kinds of posting data, and they disagree. Aggregators: ZipRecruiter puts a test engineer at $92,027 and a flight test engineer at $134,885 (both retrieved September 15, 2026); Indeed puts a test engineer at $109,958 across 4,200 postings (updated September 7, 2026); Payscale, which samples self-reported pay, puts a test engineer at $84,809 (updated July 9, 2026). Employer-published ranges: we read every req with “test” in the title on the public Greenhouse boards of a launch and satellite manufacturer, a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer, a 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer, a space station manufacturer, and a defense-tech manufacturer on September 15, 2026, and cite them by employer type and state. Those ranges are base only, exclude equity, and come from pay-transparency states, which is why California and Washington dominate.What these figures are — and are notFigures as of September 2026. These are public-market benchmarks, not iRecruit placement data and not an offer range. OEWS medians blend a first-year validation engineer with a twenty-year test director inside one code and measure base pay only; employer-published ranges are the floor and ceiling of a level band, not a midpoint, and at space and defense manufacturers exclude equity that can be a third of total compensation; ZipRecruiter and Indeed averages measure what is advertised, not what is accepted. Read all of it as a frame for a compensation conversation, then price your own test scope, hazard exposure, and site.02 — At a glanceThe benchmarks at a glanceThe whole guide in one screen. Each row jumps to the full section.01Production / manufacturing test engineerDefense-tech manufacturer: $129,000–$171,000 California, $111,000–$147,000 Ohio and Rhode Island, $129,000–$171,000 Quincy, Massachusetts, $98,000–$130,000 Lexington, Massachusetts (hardware, laser, and camera test); 3D-printed launch manufacturer II $109,000–$163,000 California (postings retrieved Sep 15, 2026)$111-171K02Integration and test engineerLaunch and satellite manufacturer Level I $100,000–$115,000, Level II $110,000–$135,000 Washington; Vandenberg Level II $115,000–$160,000; ZipRecruiter average $124,275 (Sep 15, 2026)$124K avg03Test engineer (BLS 17-2199 spine)$122,930 median, BLS OEWS May 2025; 25th–75th $90,970–$158,090; aerospace (3364) $124,340; Indeed $109,958 (Sep 7, 2026); ZipRecruiter $92,027 (Sep 15, 2026)$123K med04Propulsion / flight test engineerSpace station manufacturer propulsion test, Mojave CA, three levels $86,000–$195,000; defense-tech flight test engineer $112,000–$149,000, senior $146,000–$194,000, staff $166,000–$220,000 California; ZipRecruiter flight test $134,885$112-220K05Test lead / manager / directorLaunch and satellite manufacturer lead I&T $130,000–$215,000, lead avionics test $140,000–$230,000 California; defense-tech test engineering manager $146,000–$194,000, director of test and evaluation $220,000–$292,000, head of hardware test $254,000–$336,000$146-336KAnchor numbers for 2026: the federal spine puts a test engineer coded as engineers-all-other at $122,930, as a mechanical engineer at $104,110, and as an electrical engineer at $120,630, all BLS OEWS May 2025 medians, with the aerospace cuts at $124,340, $112,900, and $141,160. The employer-published ladder at a launch and satellite manufacturer in California runs $100,000 at the bottom of a Level I test engineer band to $230,000 at the top of a lead avionics test band; a defense-tech manufacturer in the same state runs $112,000 for a flight test engineer to $336,000 for a head of hardware test. The aggregator averages for the bare title ($84,809 to $109,958) sit below every one of those floors, which makes them a fair frame for a general-industry validation seat and a low one for a launch site.
03 — BenchmarksThe test engineer salary ladder by rung in 2026Six rungs, from production test to test director. The federal series set the floor and the shape of each distribution; employer-published base ranges from five space and defense boards fill in the titles BLS does not code. Where OEWS publishes a cut for aerospace (3364), semiconductor (3344), motor vehicle (3361), engine and turbine (3336), or testing laboratories (5413-80), it is shown against the national median. Employer ranges are base only and cited by employer type and state as read on September 15, 2026.$111,000–$171,000Production / manufacturing test engineer, defense-tech and launch plantsEmployer-provided base ranges at a defense-tech manufacturer: $129,000–$171,000 for manufacturing test engineers in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Santa Ana, California, $111,000–$147,000 for the same title at its Ohio and Rhode Island plants, and $98,000–$130,000 for hardware, laser, and camera test engineers in Lexington, Massachusetts (retrieved September 15, 2026). A 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer in Long Beach publishes $109,000–$163,000 for a manufacturing test engineer II; a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer there publishes $83,200–$106,080 base for a mechanical test engineer I. Salary.com models a general-industry Test Engineer II at $79,966 and a III at $112,160 (September 1, 2026).$100,000–$160,000Integration and test engineer, Level I and IIA launch and satellite manufacturer publishes two-level bands on every I&T req: $100,000–$115,000 (Level I) and $110,000–$135,000 (Level II) for satellite bus, payload, and propulsion integration in Redmond, Washington, and $100,000–$130,000 and $115,000–$160,000 for Falcon integration and test at Vandenberg, California (retrieved September 15, 2026). A launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer in Long Beach publishes $83,200–$104,000 base for an I&T engineer I and $95,200–$119,000 for a II; a defense-tech manufacturer publishes $99,000–$130,000 for its maritime I&T engineer. ZipRecruiter’s integration and test engineer average is $124,275 with a $104,000–$140,000 middle band (September 15, 2026).$122,930Test engineer, national median (BLS 17-2199 spine)BLS OEWS May 2025 median for engineers, all other (154,070 jobs): 10th $66,810, 25th $90,970, 75th $158,090, 90th $189,950, mean $125,330. Industry cuts: semiconductor 3344 $132,760, engine and turbine 3336 $127,660, aerospace 3364 $124,340, motor vehicle 3361 $111,890, testing laboratories $105,040, engineering services 5413-30 $99,540. Posting data for the bare title: Indeed $109,958 across 4,200 postings (September 7, 2026), ZipRecruiter $92,027 with a $69,500–$109,000 middle band (September 15, 2026), Payscale $84,809 across 1,620 self-reported profiles (July 9, 2026).$86,000–$195,000Propulsion and test-site engineer, three levelsA space station manufacturer publishes three stacked bands for propulsion test engineers at its Mojave, California test site: $86,000–$122,000, $112,000–$155,000, and $135,000–$195,000, and two for test instrumentation engineers, $86,000–$120,000 and $110,000–$155,000 (retrieved September 15, 2026). A 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, publishes $90,000–$136,000 for a propulsion test engineer I, $104,000–$156,000 for a II, and $124,000–$186,000 for a senior. A launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer in Long Beach publishes $115,000–$173,000 base for a senior spacecraft propulsion test engineer I and $132,000–$220,000 for a senior II. The federal frame is the mechanical engineer series: $104,110 nationally, $124,400 inside engine and turbine manufacturing.$112,000–$220,000Flight test engineer, engineer to staffA defense-tech manufacturer publishes $112,000–$149,000 for flight test engineers in Costa Mesa and San Clemente, California, $146,000–$194,000 for senior flight test engineers on missile, autonomy, and UAS programs, $126,000–$167,000 for a senior Group 5 flight test engineer in Las Vegas, Nevada, and $166,000–$220,000 for staff flight test engineers in Costa Mesa and Victorville (retrieved September 15, 2026). ZipRecruiter’s flight test engineer average is $134,885 with a $105,500–$160,000 middle band and Palmdale, California at $200,917 (September 15, 2026); Payscale’s self-reported average is $105,895 across 95 profiles (June 22, 2026). The federal frame is aerospace engineers, 17-2011: $134,960 nationally, $137,030 inside aerospace manufacturing, $157,620 in California.$130,000–$336,000Test lead, manager, and directorA launch and satellite manufacturer publishes $130,000–$215,000 for a lead integration and test engineer and $140,000–$230,000 for a lead avionics test engineer in Hawthorne, California, with senior individual contributors at $130,000–$180,000 and $140,000–$205,000. A defense-tech manufacturer publishes $146,000–$194,000 for test engineering managers in California ($126,000–$167,000 in Ohio), $166,000–$220,000 for an integration and test lead, $220,000–$292,000 for directors of test and evaluation, and $254,000–$336,000 for a head of hardware test. A 3D-printed launch manufacturer publishes $164,000–$246,000 for staff and $185,000–$277,000 for principal test responsible engineers (all retrieved September 15, 2026).Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025 national, state, and national industry-specific estimates for SOC 17-2199, 17-2141, 17-2071, and 17-2011 via the data.bls.gov OEWS query system (extracted September 15, 2026); employer job postings read via the Greenhouse public job board API on September 15, 2026 for a launch and satellite manufacturer, a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer, a 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer, a space station manufacturer, and a defense-tech manufacturer; ZipRecruiter salary pages as of September 15, 2026; Indeed Career Explorer pages updated September 1–7, 2026; Salary.com benchmark pages as of September 1, 2026; Payscale pages updated June 22 and July 9, 2026; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook 2025–35 projections.Why the same title scatters by $80,000Three splits explain most of the scatter. First, what is being tested: a launch and satellite manufacturer prices a Level II propulsion components test engineer at $115,000–$160,000 and a Level II satellite integration and test engineer at $110,000–$135,000 on the same day, because hot-fire hazard and one-of-a-kind hardware price differently than a production line. Second, the federal code: the same “test engineer” lands at $104,110 if the state analyst codes it mechanical, $120,630 if electrical, and $122,930 if engineers-all-other, and at $134,960 if the title says flight test and the degree says aerospace. Third, disclosure: every employer range on this page comes from a pay-transparency state, and the same launch manufacturer publishes $100,000–$160,000 at Vandenberg and nothing for identical test engineer reqs in McGregor, Texas, Starbase, Texas, or Cape Canaveral, Florida. The aggregator floor ($84,809 Payscale, $92,027 ZipRecruiter) is the general-industry validation seat; nothing on the space and defense boards published a ceiling below $95,000. 04 — Cost driversPremiums that move a test engineer offerBase rung is half the story. Discipline, hazard, industry, program stage, level structure, and site each carry a documented premium in the federal cuts or the published bands, and at a launch site or defense plant they stack.+$28KElectrical and avionics test over mechanical testInside aerospace product and parts manufacturing, BLS OEWS May 2025 puts electrical engineers at a $141,160 median against $112,900 for mechanical engineers, a $28,260 gap at the same industry and level. The published bands agree: a launch and satellite manufacturer tops its avionics test engineer Level II at $170,000 and its mechanical integration and test Level II at $160,000, and its lead avionics test band ($140,000–$230,000) sits $15,000 above its lead I&T band.+$35KHot-fire and flight hazard at the top of the bandA space station manufacturer’s third-level propulsion test band in Mojave tops at $195,000 against $155,000 for its second level; a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer tops a senior spacecraft propulsion test engineer II at $220,000 base in Long Beach (September 15, 2026). ZipRecruiter’s flight test engineer average ($134,885) runs $42,858 above its test engineer average ($92,027) on the same day, the largest title premium on this page.+$12KAerospace and defense industry cutBLS OEWS May 2025 puts engineers-all-other inside aerospace product and parts manufacturing at $124,340 and electrical engineers at $141,160, against $122,930 and $120,630 nationally; semiconductor manufacturing pays the 17-2199 series $132,760. No aggregator prices ITAR or clearance separately; a defense-tech manufacturer’s active-clearance senior manufacturing test req publishes the same $146,000–$194,000 as its uncleared twin, so the clearance premium there shows up in who gets hired, not in the band.+$34KLevel II over Level I on a two-level reqA launch and satellite manufacturer publishes both levels on every test req: Level I $100,000–$130,000 and Level II $115,000–$160,000 for propulsion and powertrain components test in Hawthorne, a $30,000 ceiling gap; a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer steps a senior integration and test engineer from $108,800–$149,600 (senior I) to $125,300–$187,850 (senior II) base, a $38,250 ceiling gap. Ask which level the req is priced at before you negotiate the number.+$18KCalifornia and Washington over Ohio and MississippiA defense-tech manufacturer publishes $129,000–$171,000 for a manufacturing test engineer in California and $111,000–$147,000 for the same title at its Ohio and Rhode Island plants, an $18,000 gap at both ends (September 15, 2026). The federal state medians for engineers-all-other run $130,850 in California and $134,570 in Washington against $120,470 in Ohio and $111,030 in Mississippi (BLS OEWS May 2025), and a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer’s Wallops Island, Virginia test and launch bands start at $76,000.+$60KPeople leadership and program test authorityA defense-tech manufacturer steps from $146,000–$194,000 for a senior test engineer or a test engineering manager to $220,000–$292,000 for a director of test and evaluation, and to $254,000–$336,000 for a head of hardware test; a 3D-printed launch manufacturer prices a manager of environmental test at $130,000–$194,000 and a principal test responsible engineer at $185,000–$277,000 (September 15, 2026). The technical track and the management track cross at roughly $200,000 on every board we read.The stacking is the point. An integration and test engineer running avionics checkouts on a flight vehicle at a cleared space or defense manufacturer in California is competing against the $141,160 aerospace electrical median and the $115,000–$160,000 Level II band, not the $92,027 ZipRecruiter average a generic req pulls. A propulsion test engineer stepping into a senior seat at a test site should expect the $135,000–$195,000 Mojave band or the $124,000–$186,000 Stennis band, and a test engineer moving from a production line to a flight test card should expect the $42,858 title premium the aggregators already show. 05 — VariationRegional spread across the reindustrialization mapSix markets where launch, satellite, defense-tech, and test-site engineering concentrate. Each cell pairs BLS OEWS May 2025 state medians for engineers, all other (17-2199), mechanical engineers (17-2141), electrical engineers (17-2071), and aerospace engineers (17-2011) with the employer-published base ranges we read for that state on September 15, 2026.California (Hawthorne, Long Beach, Costa Mesa, Mojave, Vandenberg)$130.9K–$157.6KEngineers-all-other median $130,850 (25th $98,520, 75th $169,830, 90th $212,130) across 28,610 jobs, the largest state headcount; mechanical $130,900; electrical $144,040; aerospace $157,620 (BLS OEWS May 2025). Every board we read publishes here: test engineer Level I/II $100,000–$160,000, propulsion test $86,000–$195,000 across three levels in Mojave, flight test $112,000–$220,000 from engineer to staff, lead avionics test $140,000–$230,000.Washington (Redmond, Woodinville, Bellevue)$110.4K–$158.4KEngineers-all-other median $134,570 (25th $109,550, 75th $168,550), the second-highest 17-2199 state median on this page after Virginia; mechanical $110,430; electrical $132,710; aerospace $158,370 (BLS OEWS May 2025). A launch and satellite manufacturer’s Redmond satellite reqs publish $100,000–$135,000 across two levels for integration and test, $105,000–$145,000 for hardware test, and $105,000–$175,000 for electrical test and reliability. Indeed’s Redmond test engineer average is $91,494 across 13 postings (September 1, 2026), the production-line version of the seat.Texas (Starbase, McGregor, Bastrop)$112.4K–$130.3KEngineers-all-other median $115,810 (25th $93,380, 75th $153,940) across 10,820 jobs; mechanical $112,410; electrical $129,450; aerospace $130,270 (BLS OEWS May 2025). Texas requires no pay disclosure, and the launch and satellite manufacturer’s McGregor Falcon test, Starbase structural and avionics test, and Bastrop electrical test reqs publish no range; Indeed’s Austin test engineer average is $121,300 (September 7, 2026). Price a Texas test seat off the California and Washington bands for the same level.Florida and Mississippi (Cape Canaveral, Stennis Space Center)$98.0K–$129.3KFlorida: engineers-all-other $105,410, mechanical $99,980, electrical $104,780, aerospace $129,280. Mississippi: engineers-all-other $111,030, mechanical $98,000, electrical $104,990 across 480, 1,570, and 1,130 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025). A 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer nonetheless publishes Stennis bands of $90,000–$136,000, $104,000–$156,000, and $124,000–$186,000 for propulsion test engineer I, II, and senior, and $104,000–$156,000 for a test and launch structures manufacturing engineer at Cape Canaveral; a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer’s Stennis test operations reqs publish no range.Virginia and Colorado (Wallops Island, Reston, Littleton, Broomfield)$104.2K–$156.2KVirginia: engineers-all-other $148,160 (25th $116,920), the highest 17-2199 state median on this page and fourth in the country behind New Mexico, Alabama, and the District of Columbia, a government-contracting artifact; mechanical $104,180; electrical $119,030; aerospace $143,210. Colorado: engineers-all-other $132,590, mechanical $124,430, aerospace $156,190 (BLS OEWS May 2025). A launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer publishes Wallops Island test and launch bands of $76,000–$95,000 (engineer I), $87,000–$110,000 (II), $100,000–$135,000 (II/senior), and $110,000–$145,000 (lead); a defense-tech manufacturer publishes $126,000–$167,000 for a systems integration and test engineer in Broomfield.Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island (Ashville, Lexington, Quincy, Quonset)$99.1K–$131.3KOhio: engineers-all-other $120,470, mechanical $99,100 across 14,390 jobs, electrical $100,620. Massachusetts: engineers-all-other $131,260, mechanical $119,300, electrical $127,720 (BLS OEWS May 2025). A defense-tech manufacturer’s Ohio plant publishes $111,000–$147,000 for manufacturing test engineers and $126,000–$167,000 for seniors and for its test engineering manager; its Massachusetts sites publish $98,000–$130,000 for hardware, laser, and camera test engineers in Lexington and $112,000–$149,000 for test and evaluation engineers in Quincy; Quonset, Rhode Island runs $111,000–$147,000.Two patterns. First, employer bands are set by level and discipline more than by state: a defense-tech manufacturer’s senior test engineer is $146,000–$194,000 in California and $126,000–$167,000 in Ohio, an $18,000 to $27,000 geography discount, while the step from engineer to senior inside either state is worth $34,000 to $47,000 at the ceiling. Second, the disclosure gap is structural: the same launch manufacturer publishes $100,000–$160,000 at Vandenberg and nothing at McGregor, Starbase, or Cape Canaveral for identical test engineer reqs, so a Texas or Florida candidate prices against the California band whether or not the req says so. 06 — TrendWhat is moving the numbersThe test function has moved from the lab to the factory floor and the range. The 2026 reqs we read at launch, satellite, and defense manufacturers on September 15, 2026 are not qualification-lab seats; they are production test on drone, missile, and satellite lines (a defense-tech manufacturer alone carried more than 20 manufacturing test engineer reqs across California, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island), hot-fire and fluids test at Mojave and Stennis, and flight test on autonomy programs. The bands follow the volume: a production test engineer at a defense-tech plant in California prices at $129,000–$171,000, above the $122,930 federal median for the whole 17-2199 series and far above the $79,966 Salary.com models for a general-industry Test Engineer II.The federal projection points the same way for the disciplines test engineers are coded into. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook projects mechanical engineers to grow 11 percent from 2025 to 2035 with about 17,800 openings a year, electrical and electronics engineers 8 percent with about 16,300 openings, and aerospace engineers 8 percent with about 3,800 openings, all much faster than average. The residual engineers-all-other series is the exception: O*NET’s 2024–34 projection for 17-2199 is 1 to 2 percent growth and about 9,300 openings a year, which is one more reason to read the discipline cuts and the employer bands rather than the residual code alone.The other mover is level architecture. Every board we read now publishes two or three stacked bands on the same req, and the ceilings step by $20,000 to $38,000 per level: Level I to Level II at a launch and satellite manufacturer, engineer to senior to staff at a defense-tech manufacturer, I to II to senior at a 3D-printed launch manufacturer. That means the headline test engineer salary a candidate reads is usually the bottom of a Level I band, and the number an employer budgets is usually the midpoint of a Level II band; the gap between those two readings is most of the $92,027-versus-$122,930 divergence between ZipRecruiter and BLS. 07 — WorkforceReading the ladder before you write the reqThree rules follow. First, code the work, not the title: a test engineer qualifying avionics belongs against the aerospace electrical cut ($141,160) and the $120,000–$170,000 avionics test Level II band, a mechanical or fluids test engineer against the aerospace mechanical cut ($112,900) and the $115,000–$160,000 propulsion components Level II band, and neither against the $92,027 aggregator average. Second, state the level in the req: the boards that publish two bands get candidates who self-select, and a integration and test engineer reading a single $100,000–$160,000 range will anchor on the top. Third, price hazard and site explicitly: hot-fire, flight, and field test carried a $35,000 to $43,000 premium at the top of the band on every source we read, and a Texas or Mississippi test site with no published range is still priced off California.For employers standing up a test group at a launch site, defense plant, or satellite factory, the competitive set is the $100,000–$160,000 Level I/II band in California and Washington, the $111,000–$171,000 manufacturing test band at defense-tech plants, and the $130,000–$230,000 lead bands above them, not the $71,105 to $147,651 Salary.com ladder a general-industry benchmark returns. iRecruit is building candidate density across the test ladder at reindustrialization sites, from production test engineer through propulsion test engineer and test lead, for aerospace and defense manufacturers and the factory programs around them; a embedded recruiting engagement is the usual fit for a group hiring six or more test seats in a quarter, and our recruiter list covers the alternatives.For the hiring side of this market, see the Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing practice. 08 — FAQFrequently asked questions How much does a test engineer make in 2026?+There is no federal wage series for the exact title. The closest, BLS OEWS May 2025 engineers, all other (17-2199), has a $122,930 national median with a $90,970–$158,090 middle band; mechanical engineers (17-2141) sit at $104,110 and electrical engineers (17-2071) at $120,630. Posting data retrieved in September 2026: Indeed averages $109,958, ZipRecruiter $92,027, Payscale $84,809. Employer-published Level I and Level II bands at a launch and satellite manufacturer in California run $100,000–$160,000.What is a flight test engineer salary?+A defense-tech manufacturer publishes $112,000–$149,000 for flight test engineers in California, $146,000–$194,000 for seniors, $166,000–$220,000 for staff, and $220,000–$292,000 for a flight test director (postings retrieved September 15, 2026). ZipRecruiter’s average is $134,885 with a $105,500–$160,000 middle band (September 15, 2026); Payscale’s self-reported average is $105,895 (June 22, 2026). The federal frame is aerospace engineers (17-2011) at a $134,960 median, $157,620 in California (BLS OEWS May 2025).What does an integration and test engineer earn at a space company?+Employer-provided base ranges read on September 15, 2026: $100,000–$115,000 (Level I) and $110,000–$135,000 (Level II) for satellite integration and test at a launch and satellite manufacturer in Washington, $100,000–$130,000 and $115,000–$160,000 for Falcon integration and test at Vandenberg, and $83,200–$104,000 (I) through $125,300–$187,850 (senior II) base at a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer in Long Beach. ZipRecruiter averages $124,275 for the title (September 15, 2026).What is a production test engineer salary?+At a defense-tech manufacturer, manufacturing test engineers publish at $129,000–$171,000 in California, $111,000–$147,000 in Ohio and Rhode Island, $129,000–$171,000 in Quincy, Massachusetts, and $98,000–$130,000 for hardware, laser, and camera test engineers in Lexington, Massachusetts, with seniors at $146,000–$194,000 and $126,000–$167,000 respectively (retrieved September 15, 2026). A 3D-printed launch vehicle manufacturer publishes $109,000–$163,000 for a manufacturing test engineer II in Long Beach. The general-industry version is lower: Salary.com models a Test Engineer II at $79,966 and a III at $112,160 (September 1, 2026).How much more does a senior or lead test engineer make?+On the boards we read on September 15, 2026 the step from engineer to senior is worth $23,000 to $31,000 at the ceiling: $129,000–$171,000 to $146,000–$194,000 at a defense-tech manufacturer in California, $95,200–$119,000 to $108,800–$149,600 base at a launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer. Lead bands at a launch and satellite manufacturer run $130,000–$215,000 for integration and test and $140,000–$230,000 for avionics test; staff and principal test engineers at a 3D-printed launch manufacturer run $164,000–$277,000. The federal 90th percentile for engineers, all other is $189,950 (BLS OEWS May 2025). Scope the test article, then the offerHiring a production test, integration and test, propulsion test, or flight test engineer for a launch site, defense plant, or satellite factory? iRecruit is assembling candidate density across the test engineering ladder at reindustrialization sites ahead of demand. Tell us the test article, hazard class, level, and site and we’ll shortlist.Scope a search →Candidates — register with us →
