Salaries / Mechanical Engineers / San Jose
Mechanical Engineers salaries in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Auto-summary H-1B filings: DOL disclosure data Prevailing wages: DOL wage year 2026-27
Employers filed 843 certified H-1B applications for mechanical engineers in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area (July 2025 to June 2026), from 182 employers.
The middle half of offers were $147,000 to $186,000 a year, with a median of $163,000: 46% above the national median for this job ($111,500).
The most common wage level was Level IV (32% of filings).
The 2026-27 prevailing wage floor here is $117,998 at Level I and $141,835 at Level II.
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Wage levels
DOL sets four wage levels by experience. The share of filings at each level, and the minimum the employer must pay for that level here.
| Level | Share of filings | Prevailing wage (minimum) |
|---|---|---|
| Level I (entry) | 12% | $117,998 |
| Level II (qualified) | 27% | $141,835 |
| Level III (experienced) | 29% | $165,693 |
| Level IV (fully competent) | 32% | $189,530 |
Who sponsors mechanical engineers here
| Employer | H-1B filings | Median offer | Green card filings (PERM, this job, US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Inc. | 183 | $172,000 | 32 |
| Tesla, Inc. | 95 | $164,500 | 72 |
| Applied Materials, Inc | 38 | $159,500 | 35 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. | 21 | $159,000 | 12 |
| Meta Platforms, Inc | 19 | $206,000 | 1 |
| NVIDIA Corporation | 17 | $159,000 | 7 |
| Archer Aviation Inc. | 17 | $186,000 | 1 |
| KLA Corporation | 16 | $165,000 | 53 |
| Nuro, Inc | 16 | $190,000 | 4 |
| Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | 15 | $135,000 | 1 |
| Rivian Automotive, LLC | 14 | $199,000 | 90 |
| Google LLC | 14 | $208,000 | — |
| Auris Health, Inc. | 11 | $160,000 | 6 |
| Applied Intuition, Inc. | 11 | $200,000 | 4 |
| Ford Motor Company | 10 | $159,000 | 26 |
More in San Jose
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Common titles filed under this occupation: Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical Design Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Product Engineer, Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer.
About this data
Offers are the wages employers put on certified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H-1B workers: Certified H-1B LCAs decided July 2025 to June 2026. An LCA is filed before a petition, so not every filing became a job, and pay excludes bonus and stock. Annual pay; hourly offers are multiplied by 2,080. Pages appear only where there were at least 100 filings. Source: DOL disclosure data and OFLC wage data. Not legal or financial advice.