Salary Guide
Power Electronics and Semiconductor Salary Guide: Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Four numbers that are rarely published together: what candidates across German, Austrian and Swiss power electronics and semiconductors earn today, what they say they want, what employers budget for the search, and what was actually agreed. Broken down by function and seniority, with the sample size on every row and the source of every figure stated.
How these figures were gathered
- Every figure on this page comes from our own records: the pre-screen calls we hold with candidates, the introductions we send to clients, the budgets clients give us in writing, and the searches we completed. Nothing is scraped from job adverts or bought from a survey.
- The people behind the figures work in power electronics or semiconductors in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Where a figure is Ramon Lochner’s own estimate rather than a measured number, the row says so.
- Four kinds of figure, kept apart and labelled on every row: what candidates ask for, what they earn today, what employers budget, and what was actually agreed on completed searches. Blending them would tell you none of the four.
- Base salary only, in the currency it was given, rounded to the nearest €500. Swiss figures stay in francs. Nothing is converted, because a conversion would hide the fact that the two markets are not comparable.
- Every row shows how many people sit behind it, and nothing is published on fewer than three. Read n = 3 as a hint and n = 10 as a finding.
What the market pays
Across all functions and seniorities, power electronics and semiconductor professionals in Germany are asking for a median base of €102,000, with the middle half of the market between €90,000 and €130,000.
What was actually agreed on searches we completed runs higher: a median of €118,000 across eleven placements. Asks sitting below deals is the direction you would expect once you see why, and it is the opposite of what most people assume when they set a budget.
Current pay sits in between. Across the same population the median base today is €103,000, and €110,000 in technical sales; the typical ask is 10% above it. Employers running senior sales searches in 2025 and 2026 budgeted a fixed ceiling with a median of €120,000. The whole market is arguing over a €10,000 to €20,000 band, and the tables below show who stands on which side of it.
What candidates are asking for, by function
These are asks, not agreed salaries. They are what people said they wanted when a recruiter asked them directly, which makes them a good read on what it costs to get somebody to take the call, and a poor read on what a role finally closes at.
Base salary expectations by function, Germany
The middle half of the market is shown first, because a handful of ambitious asks stretch the full range in a way that misleads. The full spread and the sample size are on every row.
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field applications and applications engineering | All levels | Germany | EUR 75,000 – EUR 100,000middle half · median EUR 95,000full range EUR 50,000 – EUR 140,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 12 |
| Technical sales and business development | All levels | Germany | EUR 90,500 – EUR 115,000middle half · median EUR 99,500full range EUR 60,000 – EUR 200,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 14The widest spread of any function, because it runs from a first field sales role to a European sales director. |
| R&D and design | All levels | Germany | EUR 90,000 – EUR 110,000middle half · median EUR 95,000full range EUR 75,000 – EUR 121,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 9The tightest spread of any function. Engineering pay in this market is more predictable than sales pay. |
| Product management and marketing | All levels | Germany | EUR 80,000 – EUR 140,000middle half · median EUR 125,000full range EUR 75,000 – EUR 152,500 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 5Five people. Read the median as an indication rather than a benchmark. |
By function and seniority
This is where a general salary survey stops and a specialist one starts, and it is also where the numbers get thin. Only two of these cells rest on ten people. The rest rest on three or four, and are published because a stated small number is more useful than a silent gap, provided you can see that it is small.
Base salary expectations by function and seniority, Germany
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field applications and applications engineering | Engineer | Germany | EUR 75,000 – EUR 100,000middle half · median EUR 87,500full range EUR 50,000 – EUR 140,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 10 |
| Technical sales and business development | ManagerWith reports | Germany | EUR 91,500 – EUR 115,000middle half · median EUR 99,500full range EUR 60,000 – EUR 145,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 10 |
What was actually agreed
Everything above is what people asked for. This is what employers paid on searches we ran to completion, which is a harder number to come by: it exists only where somebody made the placement.
Agreed base salaries on completed searches, Germany
Eleven placements made by Global Technology Recruitment in German power electronics and semiconductors, started between 2024 and 2026. Too few to split by function without inventing precision, so it is published as one figure.
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All roles | All levels | Germany | EUR 85,000 – EUR 135,660middle half · median EUR 118,000full range EUR 67,682 – EUR 185,000 | – | – | – | – | Completed placementsn = 11Agreed base salary, excluding bonus and any car or allowance. |
| Technical sales and business development | All levels | Germany | EUR 113,000 – EUR 141,240middle half · median EUR 120,000full range EUR 76,136 – EUR 170,000 | – | – | – | – | Completed placementsn = 7Seven of the eleven placements. Agreed base only. The median matches the ceiling employers most often quoted, which is not a coincidence: it is where the two sides met. |
Austria and Switzerland
These two do not rest on the same evidence as Germany and the page says so on every row rather than in a footnote. Austria has four figures, which is enough for one country-level number and nothing finer. Switzerland has two, which is below the minimum we publish, so its figures are Ramon Lochner’s own estimates from fourteen years recruiting the market and are labelled as estimates throughout.
Swiss figures are in Swiss francs and are not converted. A conversion would be a guess at a rate on an unstated date, and it would quietly imply the two markets are comparable when the tax treatment, the pension arrangements and the cost of living are not.
Austria and Switzerland, base salary
Read the sample size before the number. A median of four people is a direction of travel, not a benchmark, and the Swiss rows are judgement rather than measurement.
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All roles | All levels | Austria | EUR 112,500 – EUR 209,000median EUR 147,500 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 4Four people, and skewed high. Treat it as an indication that Austrian expectations sit above the German median, not as a figure to budget against. |
| R&D and design | Senior engineer | Switzerland | CHF 110,000 – CHF 130,000 | – | – | – | – | GTR practitioner estimate |
| Field applications and applications engineering | All levels | Switzerland | CHF 120,000 – CHF 140,000 | – | – | – | – | GTR practitioner estimate |
| Technical sales and business development | ManagerWith reports | Switzerland | CHF 140,000 – CHF 170,000 | – | – | – | – | GTR practitioner estimate |
What people currently earn
Everything above is what people asked for or accepted. This is what the same population told us they are paid today, which is the number every offer is measured against. It comes from the pre-screen calls, where we ask for current base, bonus and car before we ask for expectations.
Grouped by job title, so that sales means people whose job is sales. Bonus and car are described in words from 78 introductions of German sales candidates to clients, because an average of a company car is not a number anyone can use.
Current base salary by function, Germany
What people said they earn today, base only, from pre-screens between 2024 and 2026. Rounded to the nearest €500, with the sample size on every row.
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All functions | All levels | Germany | EUR 85,000 – EUR 125,000middle half · median EUR 103,000full range EUR 36,000 – EUR 240,000 | – | – | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 84 |
| Technical sales and business development | All levels | Germany | EUR 89,500 – EUR 126,500middle half · median EUR 110,000full range EUR 36,000 – EUR 200,000 | Where a figure was given, typically 15% of base; a quarter at 25% or more; 43% at the top. Given in 34 of 78 introductions. | A company car in 17 of 78 packages and a monthly allowance in 18; explicitly none in 4; not mentioned in the rest. | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 28The floor of €36,000 is one early-career figure; the middle half of sales people already earn €89,500 to €126,500. |
| Field applications and applications engineering | All levels | Germany | EUR 86,000 – EUR 115,000middle half · median EUR 92,000full range EUR 65,000 – EUR 143,000 | – | – | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 15 |
| R&D and design | All levels | Germany | EUR 73,500 – EUR 110,500middle half · median EUR 80,000full range EUR 60,000 – EUR 127,500 | – | – | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 19 |
| Product management and marketing | All levels | Germany | EUR 60,000 – EUR 145,000median EUR 92,500 | – | – | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 4Four people. A hint, not a finding. |
| Director and above | DirectorWith reports | Germany | EUR 119,000 – EUR 161,000middle half · median EUR 130,000full range EUR 100,000 – EUR 240,000 | – | – | – | – | What candidates currently earnn = 7Seven people. A hint, not a finding. |
The same people, what they asked for
The expectations of the same pre-screen population, grouped the same way, so the two tables line up row for row. Technical sales people earning a median of €110,000 asked for a median of €120,000; applications engineers on €92,000 asked for €100,000; design engineers on €80,000 asked for €90,000.
This table and the taxonomy-grouped one earlier in the guide are different populations, not a contradiction. The taxonomy classification tags many engineers with customer contact as sales; this grouping counts only people whose job title is a sales title. The sample sizes show which is which.
Base salary asked, by function, job-title grouping, Germany
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All functions | All levels | Germany | EUR 90,000 – EUR 130,000middle half · median EUR 110,000full range EUR 55,000 – EUR 300,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 125 |
| Technical sales and business development | All levels | Germany | EUR 100,000 – EUR 130,000middle half · median EUR 120,000full range EUR 60,000 – EUR 200,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 34 |
| Field applications and applications engineering | All levels | Germany | EUR 92,000 – EUR 115,000middle half · median EUR 100,000full range EUR 75,000 – EUR 140,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 23 |
| R&D and design | All levels | Germany | EUR 80,000 – EUR 105,000middle half · median EUR 90,000full range EUR 70,000 – EUR 135,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 27 |
| Product management and marketing | All levels | Germany | EUR 110,000 – EUR 120,000middle half · median EUR 115,000full range EUR 75,000 – EUR 150,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 13 |
| Director and above | DirectorWith reports | Germany | EUR 135,000 – EUR 200,000middle half · median EUR 174,000full range EUR 90,000 – EUR 300,000 | – | – | – | – | Candidate expectationsn = 15 |
What a move is worth: the uplift people ask for
Where somebody gave both a current base and an expectation, the ratio between the two is the most useful single number in this guide, because it is the number a counter-offer has to beat.
Across 57 people in German power electronics and semiconductors who gave both figures in a pre-screen, the median ask was 10% above current base. The middle half asked for between 4% and 20% more. Thirteen of the 57 asked for the same as they earn today, or less, usually because the move itself, the technology or the title was the point.
A second, independent source says the same thing. Across 51 candidates introduced to clients by email between 2024 and 2026 where both figures were on record, the median uplift asked was again 10%, the middle half sat between 4% and 17%, and 12 of the 51 asked for no increase at all.
- Technical sales and business development: median +9%, in both sources (pre-screens n = 19, introductions n = 30). The people with the highest current pay ask for the smallest step.
- Field applications engineering: median +12% (n = 14).
- R&D and design: median +14% (n = 11).
- Product management and marketing: median +14% (n = 4, a hint).
- The 15% to 20% rule of thumb that recruiters, including us, quote to clients describes the upper quarter of asks, not the typical one. It is the right planning figure for the candidate a search is actually run for, the one who is settled and performing and has no reason to move cheaply, and the wrong one for the median respondent, who will move for less.
What employers budget
The other side of the table, which no candidate survey can show. On five senior technical sales and business development searches we ran in Germany in 2025 and 2026, at four employers, the top of the fixed salary range the employer quoted sat between €100,000 and €130,000, with a median of €120,000. Set that against the asks above: a median sales ask of €118,000 to €120,000 base, and a top quarter above €130,000.
Three things happened around those ceilings often enough to be worth naming. One employer raised its reference point by around a third during the search, once the first shortlist showed what the original money bought. One offered a fixed-only package to a candidate whose current pay included a bonus, and the arithmetic of that only became visible at contract stage. And one approved a fixed salary and then cut it by roughly a sixth, because it would have exceeded the hiring manager’s own pay. Internal pay structures are a ceiling too, and usually an unspoken one.
Employer fixed-salary ceilings, senior technical sales, Germany
The upper end of the fixed range each employer quoted for the search. Five searches at four employers, 2025 to 2026. Fixed salary only; targets quoted as a total package were excluded.
| Role | Seniority | Country | Base salary | Bonus | Car | German | Time to hire | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical sales and business development | Senior or manager | Germany | EUR 100,000 – EUR 130,000median EUR 120,000 | On top of the fixed figure: none in one fixed-only structure, otherwise 20% to 43% of base. | A company car or a monthly allowance of around €900 to €1,000 in most cases. | – | – | Employer budgetsn = 5Five searches. A direction, not a benchmark; but it is the direction employers are actually facing. |
The arithmetic of a ceiling
This is the reasoning we put in writing to clients in 2026, and it belongs on the record. Take a search with a €100,000 fixed ceiling and the market’s own rule that a move carries a 15% to 20% rise. A candidate on €75,000 today expects €86,000 to €90,000. One on €80,000 expects €92,000 to €96,000. One on €85,000 expects €98,000 to €102,000. A €100,000 ceiling is therefore, in practice, a search among people earning €75,000 to €85,000 today.
In German power semiconductors, people at that level are usually earlier in their careers than a senior sales brief asks for, and the experienced native-German sales professionals the brief describes are mostly already on around €120,000 fixed or more, as the tables above show. People already on €90,000 to €100,000 cannot be moved for it at all, because there is no rise left to offer.
The way out is rarely more money. It is a different profile: a field applications engineer, or an applications or technical marketing professional, with real customer and commercial exposure, who sits inside the budget and brings the product knowledge and the design-in relationships a sales role lives on. On the searches above, that is where most of the shortlist came from.
Two rules follow for anyone writing an offer. Put the arithmetic on the table before the shortlist, not at contract stage, because a gap does not close by being discovered late. And when the structure changes, say from fixed plus bonus to fixed only, compare total to total: a candidate on a fixed-plus-bonus total who is offered a smaller fixed-only figure has been offered a pay cut, however it is presented.
Outside Germany, for comparison
The same introduction emails cover searches outside the DACH region. Nothing here is converted and none of it is a benchmark; it is context for the German figures, at the sample sizes shown.
- United States, technical sales and field applications in power semiconductors, 2026: five candidates asked between USD 150,000 and USD 225,000 base, median USD 170,000, on current bases of USD 130,000 to 180,000 (n = 4). The two employers quoted USD 100,000 to 156,000 fixed plus around 30% bonus. Our standing note to European clients hiring there: US pay for the same role can be close to double the European figure.
- Netherlands, senior sales for power conversion systems, 2026: three asks of €144,000 to €165,000 base, against an employer range of €100,000 to €120,000 plus 10% and a car.
- Italy, power semiconductors, 2024 to 2026: current base for 32 people had a median of €56,000, and field applications engineers clustered at €55,000 (n = 9). Asks had a median of €75,000 (n = 32). It is the market where the uplift asked is largest, a median of 25% (n = 26).
- Austria: three asks between €100,000 and €175,000, median €120,000. Too few to publish more, which is why the Austrian row above stays as it is.
Why the asks sit below the deals
A median ask of €102,000 against a median deal of €118,000 looks backwards at first glance. It is not, and the gap is the most useful thing on this page if you are setting a budget.
Asks are gathered across everybody a recruiter speaks to, at every level, including people early in their career and people who are curious rather than committed. Deals happen at the top of that distribution, because the roles worth running a search for are the harder and more senior ones, and because the person who accepts is usually the one who was hardest to move.
The practical consequence is this. A budget set at the market’s median ask produces a shortlist of people who were available, not people who were wanted. The roles that close near the median ask are the ones where somebody was already looking.
What this guide does not yet cover
Each of these is a gap in the data rather than a gap in the market knowledge. If you are benchmarking a specific role against any of them, ask and you will get a straight answer with its reasoning, rather than a number with no source behind it.
- Bonus, car and allowances outside sales. For technical sales they are described above in words; for engineering, applications and product roles the record is still too thin to publish a pattern we would defend.
- German language requirement by role, which in this market moves both the salary and the time to hire more than almost anything else.
- Bonus and car in Austria and Switzerland. The country figures above are base salary only.
- Manufacturer against distributor, and start-up against multinational. The gap is real and we can describe it. We cannot yet size it.
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