Hardware
Hardware demand is growing fast, especially in DefTech, while candidate supply remains tight.
Demand
HardwareHiring 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 704 figure covers DefTech in Q3; 274 covers all DOU Hardware vacancies in September.
Salary
DefTech rolesHiring 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.
Supply
DefTech signalHiring 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 Hardware and all-DefTech response figures use DOU vacancies in Q3. The older Djinni posting trend is separate context.
Independent salary benchmark
DOU salary survey
Salary range history
| Survey | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile | Respondents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $875 | $2100 | $4150 | 20 | |
| $1275 | $3000 | $5000 | 24 |
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.