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Information Technology | Firmware Engineer

Firmware Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Firmware Engineer develops the programmable content in electronic hardware devices. Works for a hardware company developing software for each hardware platform. Alters, organizes and models the functionality of software for a variety of industries, including the automotive, health care and consumer electronics industries.

Job Outlook

There were 141 Firmware Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 5682 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Computer Systems Engineer / Architect industry, which includes the Firmware Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Firmware 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 $127,123.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $107,004.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Firmware Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $105,404.

Education and Experience

Posted Firmware 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 LevelPercentage
Associate's Degree0%
Bachelor's Degree72%
Master's Degree36.54%
Doctoral Degree8.62%
Other0.53%

Posted Firmware 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 ExperiencePercentage
0 to 2 years12.66%
3 to 5 years49.63%
6 to 8 years20.2%
9+ years17.51%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Firmware 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 (38.35%)
  • Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (21.98%)
  • Problem Solving (21.86%)
  • Innovation (14.48%)
  • Management (12.37%)
  • Leadership (11.95%)
  • Self-Motivation (10.21%)
  • Writing (8.47%)
  • Verbal Communication Skills (7.83%)
  • Research (7.57%)

Defining Skills

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

  • Firmware Development (34.33%)
  • Embedded Firmware (30.38%)
  • C (Programming Language) (56.02%)
  • Computer Science (47.58%)
  • Software Development (20.58%)
  • C++ (Programming Language) (54.24%)
  • Electrical Engineering (47.66%)
  • Linux On Embedded Systems (10.97%)
  • Embedded Systems (43.61%)
  • Embedded Software (24.11%)
  • Debugging (58.31%)
  • Computer Engineering (35.64%)
  • Linux (22.66%)
  • Firmware (95.61%)
  • Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (22.27%)
  • Logic Analyzer (12.24%)
  • Python (Programming Language) (35.76%)
  • Joint Test Action (IEEE Standards) (8.45%)
  • Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (17.65%)
  • Real-Time Operating Systems (30.82%)
  • Software Engineering (21.6%)
  • Microcontrollers (24.14%)
  • Bare Metal (13.52%)
  • Serial Peripheral Interface (28.37%)
  • I2C (27.77%)

Necessary Skills

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

  • Git (Version Control System) (17.46%)
  • Agile Methodology (12.41%)
  • Oscilloscope (20.17%)
  • Test Automation (7.56%)
  • Algorithms (20.4%)
  • Automation (10.05%)
  • Unit Testing (10.77%)
  • JIRA (6.91%)
  • Communications Protocols (16.75%)
  • Software Development Life Cycle (5.29%)
  • Printed Circuit Board (5.59%)
  • Code Review (11.02%)
  • Version Control (17.6%)
  • Operating Systems (16.86%)
  • Device Drivers (13.3%)
  • Programming Tools (6.63%)
  • Electronics (8.83%)
  • Perl (Programming Language) (5.04%)
  • MATLAB (8.09%)
  • Digital Signal Processing (13.19%)
  • Project Management (8.06%)
  • USB (14.32%)
  • New Product Development (18.82%)
  • PCI Express (8.52%)
  • Peripheral Devices (9.31%)
  • SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (3.81%)
  • Prototyping (9.75%)
  • Scripting (15.73%)
  • Simulations (14.53%)
  • Test Planning (10.76%)
  • TCP/IP (8.38%)
  • Systems Architecture (5.1%)
  • VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) (11.07%)
  • CI/CD (5.29%)
  • Software Design (5.55%)
  • Systems Design (6.89%)
  • Sensors (8.75%)
  • Verilog (8.31%)
  • Application Specific Integrated Circuits (3.95%)
  • Programming Languages (9.7%)
  • Internet Of Things (IoT) (8.11%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

  • Board Bring-Up (5.64%)
  • Booting (BIOS) (2.89%)
  • ARM Architecture (5.84%)
  • Boot Loaders (5.15%)
  • Bluetooth (5.24%)
  • Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (3.61%)
  • FreeRTOS (4.67%)
  • Hardware Interface Design (4.13%)
  • General-Purpose Input/Output (4.28%)
  • Embedded C (7%)
  • System On A Chip (2.61%)
  • Stm32 (2.27%)
  • Vivado (4.53%)
  • Das U-Boot (1.9%)
  • ModelSim (1.87%)
  • Zigbee (2.75%)

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.

  • Firmware Development (37.28%)
  • Board Bring-Up (6.13%)
  • Microcontrollers (26.22%)
  • I2C (30.16%)
  • Bluetooth (5.69%)
  • C++ (Programming Language) (58.9%)
  • Linux (24.61%)
  • Embedded C (7.6%)
  • Embedded Software (26.18%)
  • Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (3.93%)
  • Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (24.19%)
  • FreeRTOS (5.07%)
  • Joint Test Action (IEEE Standards) (9.17%)
  • Python (Programming Language) (38.84%)
  • Real-Time Operating Systems (33.47%)
  • System On A Chip (2.83%)
  • Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (19.17%)
  • ModelSim (2.03%)
  • Bare Metal (14.69%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

  • Embedded Firmware Engineer
  • Embedded Software/Firmware Engineer
  • Firmware Developer
  • Staff Firmware Engineer
  • Firmware Test Engineer
  • Firmware Engineering Intern
  • Firmware Development Engineer
  • Software/Firmware Engineer
  • Firmware Design 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 Firmware Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

  • Actalent (303)
  • Apple (289)
  • AMD (117)
  • Meta (111)
  • Motion Recruitment (98)
  • Western Digital (90)
  • Intel (79)
  • Amazon (74)
  • Google (71)
  • Nvidia (71)

North Carolina

  • Lenovo (26)
  • Actalent (21)
  • Reperio Human Capital (13)
  • Schneider Electric (9)
  • Itron (9)
  • Eaton Corporation (5)
  • Rise Technical Recruitment Ltd (5)
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific (3)
  • Microsoft (3)
  • Apple (3)