Sales Engineers
SOC 41-9031 · 2024-2034
Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $140,428per year
- Projected openings
- 5,260
- Projected change
- +1.6%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Speaking
- Persuasion
- Active Listening
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Reading Comprehension
- Social Perceptiveness
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $177,549 | 1,690 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $166,156 | 950 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $149,871 | 40 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $137,282 | 310 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $132,925 | 410 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $126,035 | 40 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $125,656 | 460 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $121,286 | 600 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $118,057 | 880 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $108,039 | 80 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $106,474 | 160 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $105,482 | 40 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $79,568
- A quarter earn under
- $103,706
- Half earn under
- $140,428
- Three quarters earn under
- $176,100
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $215,314
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | $125,352 | 24,440 | -1.7% |
| Architectural and Engineering Managers | $213,808 | 20,870 | +5% |
| Logisticians | $94,448 | 38,460 | +19.5% |
| Software Developers | $179,292 | 207,260 | +18.4% |
| Industrial Engineers | $128,088 | 24,010 | +11.9% |
| Electronics Engineers, Except Computer | $165,013 | 11,330 | +0.5% |