Hiring a computer hardware engineer in Santa Ana, CA

Employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay computer hardware engineers a median of $158,530, with the middle half of the market between $131,130 and $198,360. Santa Ana residents working in architecture and engineering occupations report a median of $96,160, which is 39% below what the metro pays for this role.

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What does a computer hardware engineer earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid by employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
25th percentile	$131,130
Median	$158,530
75th percentile	$198,360

Half of computer hardware engineers in this area earn between $131,130 and $198,360. A band set below $131,130 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.

Place of residence

What Santa Ana residents earn

$96,160

Median earnings of Santa Ana residents working in architecture and engineering occupations, 2,349 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 39% 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.

The role pays well above the local residential norm, which usually means you can hire from inside Santa Ana rather than competing for commuters.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

Update knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.
Design and develop computer hardware and support peripherals, including central processing units (CPUs), support logic, microprocessors, custom integrated circuits, and printers and disk drives.
Confer with engineering staff and consult specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.
Build, test, and modify product prototypes, using working models or theoretical models constructed with computer simulation.
Write detailed functional specifications that document the hardware development process and support hardware introduction.

O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 17-2061.

Tools and technologies in demand

C, C++, Hardware description language HDL, Linux, Magellan Firmware, PCI Express PCIe, Perl, Python.

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 Santa Ana?

This is a job zone four: considerable preparation needed occupation. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

That matters here, because 18% of Santa Ana adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That is a thin local pool for a degree-requiring role, so expect to recruit across the metro rather than inside the city. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.

The average Santa Ana commute runs 24.8 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 8.7% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.

How often do these jobs turn over?

In Orange County, architectural, engineering and related services employs 27,191 and turns over 5.8% a quarter, with 1,990 hires against 2,061 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $9,591 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 computer hardware engineers. 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 $31,706 to $47,559 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.