Mechatronics technician salary in Maryland (2026)

How much does a mechatronics technician make in Maryland?

The story in Maryland is the spread, not the middle. The median is $75,330 and the mean is $90,100, and that gap is large. When the average sits almost $15,000 above the median, a small group of very high earners is dragging the average up. The middle 50% of techs fall between $65,270 and $101,760, which is already a $36,000 swing from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

The top decile is the headline. At $144,060, Maryland's 90th percentile is one of the highest in the country for this job, over $34,000 above the national top decile. That points to a small number of senior automation and controls techs at defense contractors, pharma plants, and federal-adjacent sites who earn engineer-level money. The floor is solid too: the 10th percentile of $62,290 beats the national 10th percentile ($47,840) by a wide margin, so entry pay here is better than most states.

With a location quotient of 0.33 and only 90 jobs statewide, this is a thin market. Maryland doesn't have the auto or heavy-manufacturing base that concentrates these roles elsewhere. That means fewer postings, but the ones that exist tend to pay well because they sit at high-value employers.

Maryland mechatronics salary: BLS vs Salary.com vs Indeed

Three sources, three very different numbers. BLS puts the Maryland median at $75,330 from its employer survey. Salary.com models the state average at $60,536 from HR compensation data. Indeed reports $31.97 an hour, which annualizes to roughly $66,498, from 22 self-reported salaries as of June 2026. The BLS figure is the survey of what employers actually pay; Salary.com models a broader, sometimes junior-weighted role; Indeed reflects whoever chose to report, on a sample of 22 that's thin enough to move a lot with a few entries.

The gap between BLS ($75,330) and Salary.com ($60,536) is nearly $15,000, which is unusually wide. Part of that is title drift: Salary.com's model may fold in lower-paid maintenance and assembly titles, while BLS is tighter on the electro-mechanical and mechatronics code. When you're negotiating, use the BLS median of $75,330 as your anchor. It's the largest, most methodical sample, and for Maryland it's also the most defensible.

Mechatronics technician pay by metro area in Maryland

Almost all of the state's mechatronics techs work in one metro: Baltimore-Columbia-Towson holds about 80 of the roughly 90 jobs. The Baltimore-area median matches the state at $75,330, but the top end is even higher, with a 90th percentile of $180,070. That's an extreme ceiling driven by a few senior techs at defense and pharma sites in the corridor between Baltimore and the DC suburbs. The metro's location quotient of 0.59 is nearly double the state's 0.33, so if you want to work this trade in Maryland, the Baltimore corridor is effectively the market.

Job outlook for mechatronics technicians in Maryland

Maryland projects this occupation to grow 4.3% between 2024 and 2034, from about 90 jobs to 100. That's well ahead of the national projection of 0.7%, though on a base this small a single new plant line moves the whole number. The state expects about 10 openings a year. Since the occupation is only adding a job or two a year net, most of those openings come from turnover and retirements, not new positions, which means there's steady churn to step into even without expansion.

You can check the underlying projections at the Maryland Department of Labor LMI office.

How Maryland compares with nearby states

Grouped into the Census South, Maryland's $75,330 median lands near the top of its region, just behind Florida at $75,450 and Louisiana at $75,410, and a hair above Virginia at $74,880. Those four states are clustered within a few hundred dollars of each other at the top of the Southern pay table, while states like North Carolina ($63,330) and Texas ($54,460) sit thousands lower. So Maryland pays like the best of the South even though it employs far fewer techs than its neighbors.

Who hires mechatronics technicians in Maryland

Most of the demand sits in the Baltimore corridor. McCormick & Company runs its spice and seasoning operations out of Hunt Valley, MD, and posts process control and plant technician roles that lean on PLC and control-system skills. BAE Systems has a Baltimore operation that hires automation and electronics technicians on the defense side, which is a big part of why the state's top decile runs so high.

Food and beverage production adds more seats: Shasta Beverages runs a Baltimore bottling plant that hires technicians to troubleshoot control systems and machine failures. Between defense, pharma, and food processing, the pattern in Maryland is fewer openings than big manufacturing states, but at employers that pay at the top of the scale.

How to earn more as a mechatronics technician in Maryland

Stack PLC and controls certs

Maryland's high earners are controls and automation techs, not general maintenance. The path to the $101,760 upper quartile runs through PLC programming, HMI, and industrial network skills that defense and pharma plants pay a premium for. Build a certification stack around the controls systems those employers actually run, and you move out of the entry band fast.

Work the Baltimore corridor

The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro holds about 80 of the state's 90 jobs and carries a 90th percentile of $180,070, higher than the statewide top decile. If you're serious about this trade in Maryland, that corridor between Baltimore and the DC suburbs is where the well-paid seats are. Commuting into it, or relocating closer, puts you in reach of the employers that anchor the top of the pay range.

Step up to the engineer track

The gap between a technician median of $75,330 and the six-figure top decile is mostly about scope. Moving toward a controls or automation engineer role is the clearest way to clear that ceiling for good. See the controls engineer path and the mechatronics salary guide for the education and experience that get you there.

Sources & methodology

Figures on this page come from four independent datasets, retrieved 2026-07-14. Where they disagree, the disagreement is shown rather than averaged away; the source-comparison section explains why each number differs.

• BLS OEWS, SOC 17-3024, May 2025 national and state estimates (state file oesm25st.zip). Employer-reported, the authoritative baseline.
• Salary.com, Mechatronics Technician in Maryland, as of July 1, 2026. HR-reported and modelled averages.
• Indeed, mechatronics technician salaries in Maryland, based on 22 reported salaries. Posting-derived.
• Projections Central, 2024–2034 state occupational projections produced by Maryland's labor market agency (state source).
• Automation Technician jobs in Baltimore, MD (Indeed)
• Industrial Automation jobs in Baltimore (LinkedIn)