Quality Engineer Salary (2026)
Typical pay is $102,440 a year, with most quality engineers earning between $83,600 and $129,250. Based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Salary Calculator›Quality Engineer
Nationally, the typical quality engineer earns $102,440 a year. Early-career pay starts around $83,600, experienced quality engineers earn $129,250 or more, and the top 10% make over $159,860. About 365,740 people work in this occupation in the US. Pay is highest in Alaska ($156,510) and, among metro areas, in Anchorage, AK ($171,910).
Quality Engineer salary in the United States
Annual pay, BLS survey of May 2025
What quality engineers do
Quality engineers set up inspection, testing and quality systems that keep products within specification, and lead root cause analysis when something goes wrong. Experience with ISO 9001, IATF 16949 or FDA rules is common. The figures use the BLS industrial engineer occupation.
Quality Engineer salary by state
Typical annual pay for quality engineers in every state where BLS publishes figures, highest first.
| State | Typical | Early career | Experienced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $156,510 | $117,120 | $186,790 |
| Washington | $129,050 | $102,400 | $155,920 |
| Oregon | $128,290 | $100,850 | $165,780 |
| New Mexico | $128,090 | $96,810 | $160,240 |
| California | $124,600 | $98,380 | $154,190 |
| Hawaii | $123,800 | $97,190 | $155,770 |
| Louisiana | $122,920 | $97,520 | $154,320 |
| Wyoming | $122,070 | $93,160 | $142,500 |
| Delaware | $120,190 | $100,770 | $143,000 |
| Maryland | $119,930 | $98,870 | $153,340 |
| Colorado | $109,750 | $95,160 | $133,290 |
| Massachusetts | $109,420 | $96,100 | $132,260 |
| Rhode Island | $109,350 | $94,830 | $130,710 |
| West Virginia | $108,360 | $84,820 | $141,370 |
| Arizona | $108,280 | $89,320 | $135,150 |
| Texas | $104,560 | $86,410 | $133,490 |
| Montana | $104,430 | $84,300 | $139,420 |
| Connecticut | $104,160 | $88,000 | $128,120 |
| Utah | $103,940 | $88,970 | $123,090 |
| New Jersey | $103,840 | $90,480 | $130,260 |
| District of Columbia | $103,300 | $89,990 | $122,760 |
| Vermont | $103,010 | $86,060 | $123,530 |
| Minnesota | $102,660 | $85,130 | $129,640 |
| New York | $102,640 | $84,700 | $128,230 |
| Virginia | $102,550 | $81,550 | $130,810 |
| Nevada | $102,090 | $82,570 | $119,700 |
| Michigan | $101,680 | $82,850 | $127,330 |
| Florida | $101,610 | $81,480 | $127,650 |
| New Hampshire | $101,310 | $86,020 | $128,280 |
| South Carolina | $101,060 | $82,460 | $123,490 |
| Maine | $101,030 | $86,270 | $129,990 |
| Idaho | $100,840 | $81,420 | $129,580 |
| Illinois | $100,540 | $81,710 | $125,210 |
| Georgia | $100,100 | $82,140 | $123,670 |
| Ohio | $100,060 | $81,350 | $123,900 |
| Alabama | $99,880 | $80,920 | $122,640 |
| Kansas | $99,830 | $80,090 | $122,190 |
| Pennsylvania | $99,560 | $80,510 | $125,190 |
| North Carolina | $99,310 | $81,190 | $121,090 |
| Missouri | $99,290 | $80,050 | $124,340 |
| Tennessee | $99,080 | $80,750 | $117,100 |
| Arkansas | $98,410 | $79,620 | $120,680 |
| Nebraska | $98,170 | $79,800 | $116,240 |
| Iowa | $97,690 | $79,680 | $111,060 |
| Oklahoma | $97,510 | $78,250 | $121,020 |
| Indiana | $97,480 | $79,880 | $114,040 |
| Wisconsin | $96,980 | $79,410 | $111,130 |
| North Dakota | $96,940 | $78,890 | $106,220 |
| Kentucky | $96,820 | $79,390 | $116,150 |
| Mississippi | $95,830 | $78,200 | $106,260 |
| South Dakota | $93,200 | $79,340 | $109,870 |
Highest-paying metro areas
| Metro area | Typical |
|---|---|
| 1. Anchorage, AK | $171,910 |
| 2. Charleston, WV | $143,860 |
| 3. Midland, TX | $141,120 |
| 4. Lexington Park, MD | $139,600 |
| 5. Billings, MT | $139,420 |
| 6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $136,950 |
| 7. Albuquerque, NM | $132,290 |
| 8. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $132,230 |
| 9. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | $131,870 |
| 10. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | $131,740 |
| 11. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $131,210 |
| 12. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $129,890 |
| 13. Baton Rouge, LA | $129,500 |
| 14. Lake Charles, LA | $129,260 |
| 15. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA | $128,690 |
Pay in Apollo's markets
| Metro | Typical |
|---|---|
| Atlanta | $102,300 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $105,640 |
| Houston | $111,690 |
| Austin | $103,610 |
| Charlotte | $102,090 |
| Raleigh | $104,030 |
| San Antonio | $99,110 |
| Chicago | $101,760 |
| Orlando | $104,920 |
| Tampa | $100,670 |
| Miami | $103,740 |
| Jacksonville | $100,950 |
| Greenville-Spartanburg | $101,300 |
| Columbia, SC | $98,780 |
| Charleston, SC | $110,830 |
| Savannah | $100,100 |
Related engineering salaries
Quality Engineer salary FAQs
How much does a quality engineer make in the US?
The typical (median) quality engineer in the US earns $102,440 a year, or about $49.25 an hour (BLS, May 2025). Half earn more and half earn less.
What is the entry-level salary for a quality engineer in the US?
Early-career quality engineers in the US typically earn around $83,600 (the 25th percentile), and the lowest-paid 10% earn under $74,370. Degree, internships, licenses and the industry all move starting pay.
How much do experienced quality engineers earn in the US?
Experienced quality engineers in the US earn $129,250 or more (the 75th percentile), and the top 10% earn over $159,860.
Which state pays quality engineers the most?
Alaska has the highest typical pay for quality engineers at $156,510 a year. The highest-paying metro area is Anchorage, AK at $171,910 (BLS, May 2025).
Are quality engineers in demand?
BLS projects employment in this occupation to grow 12.4% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% for all jobs, with about 23,100 openings a year nationally as people retire, change jobs or the field grows.
Hiring quality engineers?
Where these numbers come from
Pay figures come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program (OEWS), which surveys about 1.1 million employer locations and is the government's main source of pay by occupation and location. This page uses the May 2025 survey, released in 2026, and updates itself when BLS publishes the next year's figures. Job outlook comes from the BLS Employment Projections for 2025–35. Cost of living comes from the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities for 2024, where the US average is 100.
Pay is base wages and salary before tax. It does not include bonuses, overtime, benefits or equity. Early career is the 25th percentile (a quarter of workers earn less), Typical is the median and Experienced is the 75th percentile. The bar shows the full range from the 10th to the 90th percentile. The salary rank check estimates a percentile by drawing straight lines between those five published points.
BLS groups some job titles together. Controls engineers, for example, are counted with electrical engineers, and CAD designers with drafters. Each result names the BLS occupation it uses so you can see exactly what is being measured. BLS does not publish every occupation in every area, for example when too few people in a job were surveyed or when a figure does not meet its reliability standards. When a metro figure is missing, the calculator shows the state figure, or the national figure if the state is also missing, and says so.
BLS occupation used on this page: Industrial Engineers (SOC 17-2112).