Hiring an aerospace engineering and operations technologist in Chicago, IL

Employers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area pay aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians a median of $72,550, with the middle half of the market between $70,550 and $74,240. Chicago residents working in architecture and engineering occupations report a median of $89,259, which is 23% above what the metro pays for this role.

What does an aerospace engineering and operations technologist earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid by employers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
25th percentile	$70,550
Median	$72,550
75th percentile	$74,240

Half of aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians in this area earn between $70,550 and $74,240. A band set below $70,550 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.

Place of residence

What Chicago residents earn

$89,259

Median earnings of Chicago residents working in architecture and engineering occupations, 23,086 people. Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011. Where people live, not where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.

The 23% figure is not a pay gap. ACS counts the civilian employed population 16 and over, part-time and part-year work included; OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs only. The two populations differ, so read this number against other cities rather than as a shortfall: the same definitional difference applies to every city equally, which is what makes a city-to-city reading sound.

Residents here already earn more than this role pays, so your offer is competing with whatever they currently commute to.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

Test aircraft systems under simulated operational conditions, performing systems readiness tests and pre- and post-operational checkouts, to establish design or fabrication parameters.
Identify required data, data acquisition plans, and test parameters, setting up equipment to conform to these specifications.
Inspect, diagnose, maintain, and operate test setups and equipment to detect malfunctions.
Confer with engineering personnel regarding details and implications of test procedures and results.
Operate and calibrate computer systems and devices to comply with test requirements and to perform data acquisition and analysis.

O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 17-3021.

Tools and technologies in demand

Apache Hadoop, Atlassian JIRA, Autodesk AutoCAD, C++, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks, Extensible markup language XML, JavaScript, JUnit.

O*NET 29.1, flagged in demand or hot for this occupation. Useful as a screen, not as a checklist.

Is the talent actually in Chicago?

This is a job zone three: medium preparation needed occupation. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

It does not require a degree, which widens the pool considerably. For context, 43.3% of Chicago adults hold one. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.

The average Chicago commute runs 33.5 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 18.3% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.

How often do these jobs turn over?

In Cook County, architectural, engineering and related services employs 24,873 and turns over 4.6% a quarter, with 1,511 hires against 1,487 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $9,544 a month. Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2024 Q1, NAICS 5413.

That figure covers every occupation in the industry, not this role alone, so read it as the local churn rate rather than as a number about aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians. It still tells you what you are hiring into: a low-churn market, where people do not move often and passive candidates are the whole game.

What does the search cost?

The fee is set by the seniority of the role, never by salary and never by location. Across all six tiers it runs $6,240 to $54,340 per search. A contingency firm hiring at this role's median would bill roughly $14,510 to $21,765 on the first year salary alone.

One owner runs the search from market map to signed offer. Searches typically fill in 23 to 35 days, which is a typical window rather than a promise, and the replacement guarantee runs 45 days at 50% off.

Price this search

Eight questions about the role. Your tier range appears on screen.

Hiring an aerospace engineering and operations technologist somewhere else?

Same role, different market. The wage band moves with the metro.

Other architecture and engineering roles in Chicago

Chicago is the largest of 1 Illinois cities in this dataset.