What does it cost to hire a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana?

Tier I to Tier VI, $6,240 to $54,340 per search, set by the seniority of the role and never by salary or location. A contingency firm billing 20 to 30% of this role's $144,230 median wage in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area (BLS OEWS, May 2025) would charge roughly $28,846 to $43,269 on the first year salary alone.

What should an offer for a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana look like?

Employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers a median of $144,230, with the middle half of the market between $88,770 and $158,130 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A band set below $88,770 competes for the bottom quarter of that market.

Is the talent for this role already in Santa Ana?

This is a job zone 4 occupation, which usually calls for a bachelor's degree, and 18% of Santa Ana adults hold one or higher (Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501). That is a thin local pool, so expect the search to run across the metro rather than inside the city.

Hiring a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana, CA

Employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers a median of $144,230 a year, with the middle half of the market between $88,770 and $158,130 (BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 17-2151). Filling it through recruitlocalpros runs Tier I to Tier VI, $6,240 to $54,340 per search, set by the seniority of the role rather than by salary or location, and our vetted recruiting partner handles sourcing, screening and placement end to end.

Do Santa Ana residents in architecture and engineering work earn more than employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay?

Santa Ana residents working in architecture and engineering occupations earn a median of $96,160 (Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011), against $102,560 as the median of the 34 wages BLS publishes for that same occupation group in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area (BLS OEWS, May 2025), a difference of 6%, with the employers figure the higher of the two.

Both sides of that figure describe the whole architecture and engineering group, not this one role. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area the group covers 34 occupations BLS publishes a wage for, from environmental engineering technologists and technicians at $58,830 to petroleum engineers at $167,000 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), with mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers at $144,230 inside it.

That comparison is between two different measures, not a pay gap. The two weight the same occupation group differently: the Census figure is the midpoint across the people who actually hold those jobs, so a group carrying a few very well paid occupations is pulled toward them, while the BLS figure is the midpoint across the 34 published occupation wages, which counts each of those occupations once whatever its headcount. Census also counts where people live and BLS counts where the jobs are, and the two cover different populations, Census the civilian employed population 16 and over, BLS wage-and-salary jobs only. Read the number against other cities, where the same definitional difference applies on both sides, rather than as a shortfall.

The two sit within 10% of each other, so residents of Santa Ana and employers across the metro are priced about the same in this field, and pay alone is unlikely to be what wins or loses this hire.

What does a mining and geological engineer earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid to mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers by employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area. BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 17-2151.
25th percentile	$88,770
Median	$144,230
75th percentile	$158,130

Half of mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers in this area earn between $88,770 and $158,130 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A band set below $88,770 competes for the bottom quarter of the market. Occupation detail for SOC 17-2151 at O*NET OnLine.

Place of residence

What Santa Ana residents earn

$96,160

Median annual earnings of Santa Ana residents working in architecture and engineering occupations, 2,349 people (Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011). An occupation group rather than this one role, and where people live rather than where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

Prepare technical reports for use by mining, engineering, and management personnel.
Inspect mining areas for unsafe structures, equipment, and working conditions.
Select or develop mineral location, extraction, and production methods, based on factors such as safety, cost, and deposit characteristics.
Select locations and plan underground or surface mining operations, specifying processes, labor usage, and equipment that will result in safe, economical, and environmentally sound extraction of minerals and ores.
Prepare schedules, reports, and estimates of the costs involved in developing and operating mines.

Task statements for SOC 17-2151, O*NET OnLine 29.1.

Tools and technologies in demand

Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D, Business software applications, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Outlook.

Flagged in demand or hot for SOC 17-2151 by O*NET OnLine 29.1. 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. O*NET OnLine, SOC 17-2151.

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, residents of Santa Ana aged 25 and over.

The average Santa Ana commute runs 24.8 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 8.7% of Santa Ana workers already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that. Census ACS 5-year 2023, place-level commuting characteristics for Santa Ana.

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 mining and geological engineers, including mining safety 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 $144,230 median in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area (BLS OEWS, May 2025) would bill roughly $28,846 to $43,269 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.

Questions employers ask about hiring a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana

What does it cost to hire a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana?: Tier I to Tier VI, $6,240 to $54,340 per search, set by the seniority of the role and never by salary or location. A contingency firm billing 20 to 30% of this role's $144,230 median wage in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area (BLS OEWS, May 2025) would charge roughly $28,846 to $43,269 on the first year salary alone.
What should an offer for a mining and geological engineer in Santa Ana look like?: Employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers a median of $144,230, with the middle half of the market between $88,770 and $158,130 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A band set below $88,770 competes for the bottom quarter of that market.
Do Santa Ana residents in architecture and engineering work earn more than employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area pay?: Santa Ana residents working in architecture and engineering occupations earn a median of $96,160 (Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011), against $102,560 as the median of the 34 wages BLS publishes for that same occupation group in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area (BLS OEWS, May 2025), a difference of 6%. Both figures cover the whole occupation group rather than this one role, and one counts where people live while the other counts where the jobs are, so the percentage is not a pay gap.
Is the talent for this role already in Santa Ana?: This is a job zone 4 occupation, which usually calls for a bachelor's degree, and 18% of Santa Ana adults hold one or higher (Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501). That is a thin local pool, so expect the search to run across the metro rather than inside the city.

Price this search

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

Hiring a mining and geological engineer somewhere else?

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

Other architecture and engineering roles in Santa Ana

Santa Ana is the 14th largest of 21 California cities in this dataset.