Circuit Design Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Circuit Design Engineer designs, develops, and tests analog and digital circuits within complex electrical systems in areas such as aeronautics, power industry, vehicle design, etc.

Job Outlook

There were 26 Circuit Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1587 in the United States.

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

Salary

Many new Circuit 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 $144,499.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $144,499.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Circuit Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $121,246.

Education and Experience

Posted Circuit 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	62%
Master's Degree	39.82%
Doctoral Degree	17.64%
Other	1.76%

Posted Circuit 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	8.72%
3 to 5 years	42.52%
6 to 8 years	20.66%
9+ years	28.1%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Circuit 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 (39.82%)
Innovation (16.51%)
Problem Solving (15.94%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (13.86%)
Management (11.97%)
Packaging And Labeling (9.39%)
Reliability (9.2%)
Leadership (9.01%)
Mathematics (8.82%)
Verbal Communication Skills (8.76%)

Defining Skills

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

Cadence Virtuoso (5.74%)
Simulations (42.07%)
Radio Frequency (20.91%)
Debugging (22.31%)
Printed Circuit Board (26.96%)
Circuit Design (54.43%)
Electrical Engineering (52.71%)
HyperLynx (8.03%)

Necessary Skills

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

Export Control (3.19%)
Pspice (7.84%)
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (5.86%)
Scripting (13.83%)
Advertisement (15.17%)
Test Equipment (7.84%)
Network Routing (5.1%)
Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (3.51%)
Verilog (10.52%)
Voltage (2.42%)
Topology (7.65%)
USB (10.58%)
Systems Design (7.52%)
Tcl (Programming Language) (5.23%)
Test Planning (11.98%)
Verification And Validation (4.46%)
SPICE (Simulation Tool) (14.53%)
Schematic Capture (21.54%)
Signal Integrity (19.31%)
Product Design (3.19%)
Prototyping (9.05%)
Printed Circuit Board Design (13.19%)
PCI Express (13.83%)
Physics (13.19%)
New Product Development (17.97%)
MATLAB (15.55%)
Machine Learning (3.31%)
Project Management (3.31%)
Python (Programming Language) (19.89%)
Logic Analyzer (3%)
Hardware Architecture (8.16%)
Hardware Design (9.43%)
Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (13.58%)
Signal Generators (3.82%)
Electronic Engineering (6.37%)
Electronics (12.68%)
Embedded Systems (4.65%)
Perl (Programming Language) (6.5%)
Design Specifications (5.23%)
Linux (4.65%)
Engineering Design Process (6.82%)
Digital Electronics (16.63%)
Integrated Circuit Design (9.18%)
Digital Signal Processing (3.31%)
Electronic Components (4.65%)
Transistor (14.15%)
Electrical Networks (7.33%)
Computer Science (4.08%)
Computer Engineering (18.87%)
Electronic Circuit Simulation (11.47%)
Electronic Circuits (5.93%)
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) (11.22%)
C++ (Programming Language) (4.46%)
Automation (12.17%)
Telecommunications (4.53%)
Analog Electronics (11.47%)
Antenna (10.2%)
Systems Engineering (11.98%)
Algorithms (4.27%)
Oscilloscope (18.29%)
Schematic Diagrams (2.29%)
C (Programming Language) (5.04%)
Computer-Aided Design (2.55%)
Laboratory Equipment (7.14%)
Supply Chain (1.15%)
Digital Design (8.29%)
Design Verification (7.97%)
Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (12.62%)
Ansys Simulation Software (7.65%)
Semiconductors (10.2%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

High-Speed Printed Circuit Board Design (4.65%)
Nanotime (3.95%)
Random-Access Memory (5.35%)
Ground Bounce (3.44%)
EM Simulation Software (3%)

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 (11.34%)
Printed Circuit Board (38.07%)
EM Simulation Software (4.23%)
Radio Frequency (29.52%)
Simulations (59.41%)
Cadence Virtuoso (8.1%)
Nanotime (5.58%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

Signal Integrity Engineer
Hardware Engineer
Circuit Designer
Analog Circuit Design Engineer
Mixed Signal Design Engineer
Principal Engineer
Engineering Principal
Circuit Engineer
Survivability 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 Circuit Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Apple (234)
Northrop Grumman (113)
Raytheon Technologies (54)
Lockheed Martin (53)
General Motors (53)
Micron Technology (45)
Actalent (43)
Nvidia (31)
Broadcom (27)
Moseley Technical Services (21)

North Carolina

Actalent (6)
Apple (4)
Celestica (2)
Garmin International (2)
Renesas Electronics (2)
Skyworks (1)
Plexus (1)
Accentuate Staffing (1)
Technical Link (1)
General Motors (1)

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!

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