Mechatronics technician salary in New Jersey (2026)

How much does a mechatronics technician make in New Jersey?

The spread in New Jersey is wide for such a small occupation. The bottom 10% of technicians earn around $51,960, while the top 10% pull $109,140 or more. That is more than double from floor to ceiling, and it tells you experience and industry matter enormously here. A first-year tech on a packaging line is not doing the same work, or earning the same money, as a controls specialist keeping a pharma fill-finish line in spec.

The middle 50% of the market runs from $55,640 (25th percentile) to $79,800 (75th percentile). Notice how compressed the bottom half is: the 10th, 25th, and median points all fall between roughly $52,000 and $60,000. Most of the real pay separation happens above the median, once you cross into the top quarter. The state mean of $71,060 sits well above the $60,040 median, which is the fingerprint of a handful of high earners pulling the average up.

With a location quotient of 0.47 and only about 200 jobs on the books, New Jersey is not a volume market for this title. That thin demand is part of why the median trails the national number. The employers who do hire, pharma, defense electronics, and automated distribution, tend to be selective and reward the people who can troubleshoot PLCs, servos, and instrumentation rather than just swap parts.

New Jersey mechatronics salary: BLS vs Salary.com vs Indeed

Three sources, three numbers, and they disagree for the usual reasons. BLS puts the New Jersey median at $60,040, drawn from a survey of what employers actually pay. Salary.com models an average of $63,636 (as of July 1, 2026) from HR compensation data, which tends to run a bit richer than the BLS median because it blends in survey-heavy job levels. Indeed reports $31.62 an hour, about $65,770 a year, but that figure rests on just 36 self-reported salaries, so treat it as a directional read rather than gospel.

The three land within a few thousand dollars of each other, which is reassuring, but they are measuring slightly different things: BLS the whole-market median, Salary.com a modelled average, Indeed a small pool of postings and worker reports. For negotiating, anchor on the BLS $60,040 median as your baseline and use the $79,800 upper-quartile figure as your target once you have a few years and a controls or instrumentation skill set behind you.

Job outlook for mechatronics technicians in New Jersey

New Jersey projects this occupation to grow 1.4% between 2024 and 2034, from a base of about 220 jobs to a projected 220. That is slow, but it is actually double the national growth rate of 0.7% for the same window. The state expects roughly 20 openings a year. Against a base of only 200-odd jobs, that number is not really about new positions, it is mostly turnover: technicians retiring, moving into engineering roles, or leaving for higher-paying neighbor states.

The practical takeaway is that most of your opportunities will come from replacement demand, not expansion. Openings surface when someone vacates a seat, so timing and networking matter more here than in a fast-growing market. You can track the state's own projections and current postings through the New Jersey Department of Labor.

How New Jersey compares with nearby states

New Jersey is the low end of its Northeast neighborhood for this job. At a $60,040 median, it trails every peer state BLS reports: Pennsylvania pays $74,710, Massachusetts $73,630, and even New York comes in higher at $68,010. Connecticut ($81,860) and Maine ($82,510) top the region outright. If you are near a state line, that gap is worth mapping, because a short commute or a move can mean a five-figure raise for the same skill set.

Who hires mechatronics technicians in New Jersey

New Jersey's pharma cluster is the biggest draw. Merck's Rahway campus, its longtime headquarters and a working manufacturing and R&D site, runs skilled-trades and automation teams covering instrumentation, building automation systems, and cGMP-compliant process controls. That is core mechatronics work: keeping PLC-driven fill, packaging, and utility systems in spec. Other large pharma and biotech sites across the state hire for the same skills.

Defense is the other anchor. Lockheed Martin's Moorestown facility employs several thousand people building radar, sensor, and missile-defense systems, and it regularly recruits electronics technicians to assemble and wire complex electro-mechanical assemblies from drawings and wiring diagrams. Add the state's automated distribution and food-processing plants, and the pattern is clear: New Jersey rewards technicians who can troubleshoot controls, not just turn wrenches.

How to earn more as a mechatronics technician in New Jersey

Stack a controls certification

New Jersey's employers, especially pharma and defense, pay for people who can work on PLCs, instrumentation, and automated controls rather than general maintenance. That skill gap is exactly what separates the state's $55,640 lower quartile from its $79,800 upper quartile. A targeted cert stack in PLC programming or instrumentation is one of the fastest ways to move up that ladder. See our certifications guide for which ones carry weight with employers.

Cross a state line

New Jersey pays the least in its region for this job, and the borders are close. Pennsylvania's median is $74,710 and New York's is $68,010, both a realistic commute from parts of the state. Even a same-role move to a Pennsylvania plant could mean roughly $14,000 more a year at the median. If relocating is on the table, Connecticut ($81,860) and Massachusetts ($73,630) sit higher still.

Step up to the engineer track

The top 10% of New Jersey technicians earn $109,140 or more, and the ceiling above that runs through the controls-engineer and automation-engineer roles the state's pharma and defense employers post constantly at $87,000-plus. Moving from a technician seat into controls engineering is the single largest pay jump available here. Our controls engineer guide and mechatronics salary guide lay out what that path takes.

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 New Jersey, as of July 1, 2026. HR-reported and modelled averages.
• Indeed, mechatronics technician salaries in New Jersey, based on 36 reported salaries. Posting-derived.
• Projections Central, 2024–2034 state occupational projections produced by New Jersey's labor market agency (state source).
• Merck Careers - Rahway, New Jersey
• Lockheed Martin - Moorestown, New Jersey