Mechanical Engineer Salary in Colorado (2026)

Worth knowing: Lockheed Martin Space Systems Denver is the structural depth feature most national mechanical engineering surveys understate for CO. Lockheed Space (Fortune 100, ~14K Denver-area employees at Waterton Canyon + Deer Creek campuses, the country's largest space technology employer by employee count) operates substantial spacecraft mechanical engineering across GPS III/IIIF satellites, Orion crew capsule (the deep-space spacecraft), Sentinel ICBM modernization, and classified space systems. Senior Lockheed Space spacecraft mechanical engineers with TS/SCI plus polygraph clearance routinely clear $185-345K TC. Ball Aerospace Boulder (cleared aerospace, post-2024 BAE Systems acquisition closing for ~$5.6B) operates spacecraft instrumentation + sensor mechanical engineering — Ball's NASA James Webb Space Telescope optical bench work plus ongoing classified satellite work drives substantial mechanical engineering depth. Sierra Nevada Corp Centennial (Dream Chaser space plane + cleared aerospace programs) adds parallel cleared mechanical engineering. Colorado School of Mines (Golden, ~7K students, the country's top-ranked mining + applied science engineering program) feeds substantial CO + national mining + mechanical engineering pipeline. CO's 4.4% flat tax + TABOR refunds + 0.55% effective property tax creates favorable senior ME tax structure substantially better than peer-state CA + IL at senior comp.