Hardware Design Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Hardware Design Engineer designs and develops computer hardware and computer-related equipment. Designs and validates hardware. May supervise production of hardware components or provide technical assistance with hardware installation.

Job Outlook

There were 102 Hardware Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4623 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Hardware Engineer industry, which includes the Hardware Design Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Hardware Design Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $145,530.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $139,837.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Hardware Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $127,185.

Education and Experience

Posted Hardware Design Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	77.14%
Master's Degree	47.7%
Doctoral Degree	16.76%
Other	0.76%

Posted Hardware Design Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	9.2%
3 to 5 years	40.11%
6 to 8 years	24.43%
9+ years	26.26%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Hardware Design Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (33.94%)
Problem Solving (19.51%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (17.13%)
Innovation (16.29%)
Leadership (16.12%)
Management (11.31%)
Mathematics (10.08%)
Research (9.52%)
Reliability (9.09%)
Writing (9.04%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Digital Design (20.57%)
Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (9.79%)
Printed Circuit Board (21.96%)
Electrical Engineering (50.68%)
Computer Engineering (40.7%)
Debugging (42.37%)
Hardware Design (39.57%)
Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (55.41%)
Python (Programming Language) (24.89%)
Hardware Description Language (HDL) (12.48%)
Vivado (18.1%)
ModelSim (8.48%)
Static Timing Analysis (10.94%)
Simulations (46.06%)
SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (25.08%)
Verilog (31.92%)
VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) (31.07%)
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (26.27%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Design Verification (15.82%)
Architectural Design (12.13%)
Git (Version Control System) (7.83%)
Communications Protocols (4.34%)
C (Programming Language) (14.3%)
Systems Engineering (10.37%)
Computer-Aided Design (4.88%)
Algorithms (14.62%)
Digital Logic (5.77%)
Telecommunications (3.56%)
Automation (8.01%)
Oscilloscope (17.83%)
Avionics (6.77%)
Electronic Circuits (5.19%)
Version Control (8.79%)
Computer Science (17.25%)
C++ (Programming Language) (14.93%)
Programming Tools (5.77%)
Electronic Design (2.04%)
Digital Electronics (13.06%)
Circuit Design (10.11%)
Engineering Design Process (5.6%)
Product Lifecycle Management (5.12%)
Hardware Architecture (18.49%)
Linux (10.28%)
Electronic Design Automation (5.79%)
Electronics (15.06%)
Perl (Programming Language) (9.44%)
Firmware (16.95%)
Embedded Systems (18.59%)
Embedded Software (5.81%)
Logic Analyzer (11.91%)
MATLAB (14.45%)
Electronic Hardware (3.95%)
Prototyping (12.56%)
Digital Signal Processing (20.39%)
Physics (7.88%)
Radio Frequency (12.02%)
Schematic Capture (14.71%)
Signal Processing (8.98%)
Printed Circuit Board Design (8.51%)
Project Management (6.34%)
New Product Development (14.1%)
Scripting (15.08%)
PCI Express (16.79%)
USB (6.34%)
Simulink (6.99%)
Test Planning (14.49%)
Microcontrollers (6.55%)
Apache Subversion (4.25%)
Software Engineering (9.52%)
I2C (10.41%)
Systems Design (9.39%)
Serial Peripheral Interface (10.22%)
Test Equipment (8.29%)
Signal Integrity (10.98%)
Tcl (Programming Language) (10.33%)
Export Control (7.33%)
Radar (7.51%)
Sensors (7.33%)
Design Documentation (6.99%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

HyperLynx (3.71%)
Programmable Logic Devices (3.38%)
Altera Quartus (3.51%)
Concurrent Versions System (Software) (3.02%)
Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (3.6%)
Hardware Verification Language (3.88%)
MicroBlaze (4.17%)
Register-Transfer Level (6.81%)
Switched-Mode Power Supply (0.89%)
Questa Advanced Verification (Siemens EDA) (4.51%)
Gate Arrays (2.86%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

HyperLynx (4.12%)
Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (10.86%)
Questa Advanced Verification (Siemens EDA) (5.01%)
Digital Design (22.82%)
Programmable Logic Devices (3.76%)
Altera Quartus (3.9%)
Concurrent Versions System (Software) (3.35%)
Hardware Design (43.91%)
Hardware Verification Language (4.31%)
Python (Programming Language) (27.61%)
Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (4%)
Register-Transfer Level (7.56%)
Switched-Mode Power Supply (0.99%)
Static Timing Analysis (12.13%)
SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (27.83%)
Verilog (35.41%)
Vivado (20.08%)
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (29.15%)
Gate Arrays (3.18%)
ModelSim (9.41%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Hardware Design Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

FPGA Design Engineer
Hardware Engineer
FPGA Engineer
Hardware Development Engineer
Digital Design Engineer
ASIC and FPGA Design Engineer
Electrical Hardware Design Engineer
Staff Hardware Design Engineer
ASIC Engineer

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Hardware Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Actalent (259)
Amazon (234)
Raytheon Technologies (231)
Apple (171)
Meta (145)
Boeing (111)
Blue Origin (104)
BAE Systems (87)
Northrop Grumman (79)
Lockheed Martin (67)

North Carolina

Actalent (20)
Zachary Piper Solutions (8)
Lenovo (7)
Piper Companies (7)
GE Vernova (5)
Plexus (4)
Randstad (4)
Protingent (3)
ManpowerGroup (3)
Cisco (3)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

Computer Engineering Master's Degrees

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Engineering