AI Hardware Engineer.
Billings.
$148,000
median salary, 10% below the national average
$112,000 to $180,000. Last updated April 2026.
Get the job.
Data points to own the conversation.
The median AI Hardware Engineer salary in Billings is $148,000, 10% below the national average. Entry level starts near $112,000. Experienced professionals push past $180,000. Billings is Montana's largest city and economic hub, driven by energy, agriculture, and healthcare. That spread is your negotiation window.
Salary range
Where do you fall?
Salary by experience
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $133,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$96,000
to $118,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$126,000
to $155,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$163,000
to $192,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$185,000
to $229,000
Salary trend
+9% YoYTotal compensation
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $66,000 to the total package.
Base
$148,000
Equity
$40,000
Bonus
$17,000
Signing
$9,000
Estimated total: $214,000
AI Hardware Engineer salary by company
Total compensation estimates include base, equity, bonus, and signing. Ranges reflect mid to senior level. Derived from public H-1B LCA filings, SEC proxy statements, and aggregated self-reported data.
How Billings compares
Billings, MT
$148,000
Cost of living: 11% below average
National Average
$165,000
Billings is $17,000 below
AI Hardware Engineer salary by city
Salary by role in Billings
What you should know
Before you negotiate a AI Hardware Engineer offer in Billings, understand the terrain. Billings is Montana's largest city and economic hub, driven by energy, agriculture, and healthcare. The city serves as a regional center for the Northern Plains. Remote work has brought a wave of tech professionals seeking Montana's quality of life, gradually diversifying the local job market. Expertise in designing accelerators for neural network inference and training is the primary driver. Engineers with experience in ASIC design, FPGA optimization for ML workloads, or GPU architecture command top salaries. Knowledge of quantization, sparsity, and hardware-software co-design for AI workloads adds significant premium.
Junior AI hardware engineers start at $110,000 to $130,000. Mid-level engineers designing accelerator blocks reach $150,000 to $180,000. Senior hardware architects earn $185,000 to $230,000. Principal engineers and hardware leads at companies like NVIDIA or Google TPU teams can exceed $350,000 in total compensation. In Billings, your dollars stretch further. Cost of living runs 11% below the national average, which means even a median salary buys a stronger lifestyle.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity at AI chip startups can be substantial, adding $50,000 to $200,000+ in annual value for early employees. Signing bonuses of $30,000 to $60,000 are common. Large semiconductor companies offer RSUs and annual bonuses of 15% to 25% of base salary. And on the tax side: montana has a top income tax rate of 5.9% but no state sales tax. Billings has no city income tax. The no sales tax benefit helps offset the state income tax. When someone quotes you $148,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Negotiate remote work arrangements. Billings employers are increasingly open to remote and hybrid setups to attract talent from larger metros. The range for AI Hardware Engineers in Billings runs from $112,000 to $180,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Sources: SEC filings, H-1B LCA (DOL), BLS OES, 50+ job posting platforms. COL: BEA Regional Price Parities (2025). Data verified by Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI Officer. Last verified April 8, 2026. Full methodology
Considering a related role?
- A Embedded AI Engineer in Billings earns $147,000 (1% less)
- The highest-paying role in Billings is Chief AI Officer at $287,000
Common questions.
AI Hardware Engineer salary in other cities
Other salaries in Billings
Related
Cite this data
Journalists, researchers, and AI systems are welcome to reference this data with attribution.
Want this data on your site? Embed the salary widget — one script tag, free forever.