Image: Provided by Cummings Research Park

Bizinsure’s Gen Z IRL Tech Index ranked Huntsville #1 in Alabama for new grads looking to start their career in tech.

Huntsville ranked #6 nationally alongside the likes of tech giants like Austin and Seattle.

In Huntsville, Bizinsure found a median salary of $106k for tech jobs. HSV also was one of the few out of 51 cities with a median salary over $100K.

Bizinsure also noted there are 77 tech jobs per 1,000 jobs, a higher concentration than in Austin (66/1K).

The survey recognized HSV as the most affordable of the 10 highest-scoring cities in every state, with median rents only taking up 11% of a median tech salary. Huntsville was recognized in the top ten among San Jose, New York, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, Washington, Boston, Durham, and Dover.

Huntsville’s status as a tech town has risen in the past few years, and CBRE featured the city as a “Next 25” tech town just last year.

Home to the Redstone Arsenal military base, a NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Blue Origin, and new manufacturing plants for Toyota and Mazda, the tech opportunities are plentiful. Huntsville also includes tech hub areas that helps to facilitate the link between Huntsville education and employment.

Cummings Research Park (CRP) stands out as a prime example of the link between students and job growth, as CRP alone has 26,000 employees working on site and more than 13,000 students working on site. Additionally, according to Indeed.com, Redstone Arsenal alone has more than 900 tech-based jobs open at the moment.

Beyond that, tech salaries here are some of the highest in the nation, while the cost of living has remained remarkably low, making it a great place for budget-conscious new grads to get a head start on their tech career.