Hardware & Physical Engineer compensation
Hardware & Physical Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Hardware & Physical Engineer salary at AI startups is $158,000, based on 754 disclosed job postings ($38,999–$320,000 range). Updated October 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$38,999Minimum
$158,000Median
$320,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 754 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Hardware & Physical Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | $206,000 | 16 |
| Series F | $175,000 | 29 |
| Series D | $172,500 | 177 |
| Series C | $162,500 | 118 |
| Series A | $161,500 | 87 |
| Private Equity | $160,523 | 7 |
| Series B | $155,000 | 115 |
| Series E | $145,000 | 74 |
| Series G+ | $129,000 | 119 |
| Debt | $122,500 | 5 |
02
How we calculate this
Roughly a quarter of AI-startup postings disclose pay. We extract the USD range from those that do, normalize each to a midpoint, and aggregate across distinct postings (deduplicated by posting ID). The minimum, median, and maximum above are based on 754 disclosed salaries. We publish aggregate ranges only, never a single company's salary, so the numbers stay representative rather than anecdotal.
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