Principal Electrical Engineer
ETAP
Irvine, CA · $125k–$195k a year · Posted November 3, 2026
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Where Irvine, CA ranks
Where Irvine, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #6Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast124 jobs · of 47
- #10Best cities for legal pay after cost of living$129k · of 20
- #10Best cities for life sciences and biotech pay after cost of living$120k · of 10
- #10Best cities for software and engineering jobs in the West Coast586 openings · of 60
- #11Best all-round cities for new graduates in the West Coast55 / 100 · of 39
- #13Best cities for manufacturing and industrial pay after cost of living$136k · of 35
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $160,000 a year. Across 103 open principal electrical engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $156,000 to $196,000 and the median is $175,000. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 9% below the median.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Principal Electrical Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
AI use among electrical engineers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for electrical engineers: 6% (little observed).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
...the life cycle of their projects with innovative software solutions for electrical systems. By applying ETAP solutions, customers experience continuous intelligence during design and engineering and into operations and maintenance using a unified electrical digital twin...