Hardware

Hardware demand is growing fast, especially in DefTech, while candidate supply remains tight.

AI-assisted summary of published DOU and Djinni analytics

Salary from $1,650 Posted estimate · last 3 months
Salary to $3,798 Posted estimate · last 3 months
Jobs 997 Last 3 months
Applications per job 2.24 JobNote category match
01

Demand

Hardware
646 DefTech vacancies · Q2
281 all DOU vacancies · June
235 all DOU vacancies · March

Hiring Define the product and discipline first: electronics, PCB, RF, power, robotics, test, or production.

Candidate Show boards and products you brought up, tested, or shipped. State your exact technical ownership.

Data The 646 figure covers DefTech in Q2; 281 and 235 cover all DOU Hardware vacancies in June and March.

02

Salary

DefTech roles
$4,000 Hardware Engineer
$2,550 Design Engineer
$1,500 UAV Engineer
$2,500 all DefTech median

Hiring Benchmark the actual discipline and title, then validate the range against the available sample size.

Candidate Compare pay with your exact discipline and ownership, not the broad Hardware label.

Data Monthly net USD. DOU says speciality samples are small and can fluctuate; the Hardware Engineer result has fewer than 15 responses.

03

Supply

DefTech signal
10.2 applications / vacancy · DefTech Q2
+20% DefTech postings · Djinni QoQ
3.5× DefTech postings · Djinni YoY

Hiring Plan direct sourcing and screen for physical-product outcomes, not only tool names.

Candidate Make production evidence visible: schematics, bring-up, validation, certification, or manufacturing support.

Data The 10.2, +20%, and 3.5× figures cover all DefTech roles. DOU identifies Hardware as scarce but does not publish its exact competition value in the article text.

Independent salary benchmark

DOU salary survey

Source data
June 2026 · 24 respondents
Role family
Lower quartile$1275
Median$3000
Upper quartile$5000

Salary range history

Lower quartile Median Upper quartile

Hardware and electronics engineers · monthly net base salary in USD; bonuses excluded; all locations in the published CSV.

Derived from the shortened public salary-survey data published by DOU. Jobnote and DOU vacancy salaries are separate datasets.

Most wanted skills

Counts of active jobs now and salaries.

PCB Design 101 $1726–$3778 Embedded 81 $2160–$4448 SolidWorks 80 $1788–$3020 Python 78 $2948–$4677 C/C++ 76 $2421–$4758 Altium Designer 69 $1797–$3693

Where to hire

Sources

  1. DefTech labour market — Q2 2026 Demand ·
  2. IT job market in the first half of 2026 Demand ·
  3. IT job market — Q1 2026 Demand ·
  4. Ukraine Top-50 IT companies — summer 2026 Demand ·
  5. DefTech salaries — summer 2026 Salary ·
  6. DefTech salaries — engineering roles Salary ·
  7. DefTech labour market — Q2 2026 Supply ·
  8. Djinni Q1 2026 — DefTech growth Supply ·
  9. Djinni Q1 2026 — DefTech growth Supply ·