System Engineer: What is the cost of hiring?

2025-09-0131000.00122592.59273000.00YEARLY

System Engineer: What is the cost of hiring?

• Common salary in US:
• Typical salaries range from -
• Find more information on Indeed Salaries

COMMON

LOW

HIGH

*Indeed data (US) –

Why hire a system engineer?

Hiring a system engineer allows your company to better thrive in a highly technical world. The right hire will typically have previous experience in the system engineering world. They must be able to find, create and deploy effective systems within your company or organization. Other common system engineer responsibilities include:

• Increasing the level of trust your customer has in your company
• Staying on the cutting edge of your industry
• Increasing the overall sales of your business

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance system engineer

Before writing a system engineer job description or interviewing candidates, it’s important to decide if you need a full-time or freelance, part-time or contract system engineer (and what your budget will allow).

You may need a freelance or contract system engineer if you only need assistance with a specific project or task (e.g., troubleshooting issues, server migration). However, a full-time system engineer may be a better option if you’re looking for ongoing maintenance and system management. 

Where to find system engineers

To find the right system engineer for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Ask for referrals: A current employee , friend or industry connection may know someone who’s the right match for your open system engineer role.
• Hire internally: A software engineer, systems administrator or network engineer employee at your company may have the skills and qualifications needed to excel as a system engineer. Consider asking employees at your company if they’d be interested in the role.
• Get involved in online tech communities: Join a website like GitHub where tech talent shares their personal projects and contributes to open source initiatives.
• Recruit at local colleges: Attend career fairs at local universities or colleges to find talent with the right education requirements for your system engineer role.
• Post your job online: Try posting your system job on Indeed to find and attract quality system engineer candidates.

Skills to look for in a great system engineer

A great system engineer candidate will have the following skills, attributes and work experience that reflects:

• BS/MS degree in computer science, engineering or a related field
• Experience coming up with engineering solutions
• System development skills
• Programming skills
• Experience with Windows and Linux operating systems
• Familiarity with scripting and/or automation tools
• Strong knowledge of networking concepts
• Technical reading and understanding
• Innovative problem solving abilities
• Consistent communication with clients and team members
• Positive attitude

Writing a system engineer job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified system engineer candidates. A system engineer job description should include a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your system engineer job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on system engineer jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Systems engineer
• Information technology
• Engineer 
• IT
• System administrator
• Aerospace engineer
• Network engineer
• Electrical engineer
• System engineer
• Engineering

Interviewing system engineer candidates

After reviewing the resumes of your top system engineer applicants, schedule interviews to learn more about them. Ask targeted and thoughtful questions to find out more about a job candidate’s education, training, professional experience and career ambitions. Strong candidates for system engineering positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Developing new systems
• The important of system engineering within a company
• How they’ve successfully implemented, monitored and managed systems

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of system engineer interview questions for examples (with sample answers).