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 81 Hardware Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 3731 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 2015:

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 $152,900.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $134,260.

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 $135,024.

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	78.42%
Master's Degree	47.15%
Doctoral Degree	20.18%
Other	1.18%

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	9.04%
3 to 5 years	35.62%
6 to 8 years	21.5%
9+ years	33.85%

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 (28.09%)
Problem Solving (15.12%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (15.12%)
Leadership (15.09%)
Innovation (14.71%)
Mathematics (10.94%)
Detail Oriented (8.87%)
Self-Motivation (8.82%)
Management (8.68%)
Research (8.58%)

Defining Skills

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

Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (8.92%)
Design Verification (20.11%)
C (Programming Language) (20.96%)
Electrical Engineering (46.15%)
Debugging (38.51%)
PCI Express (19.62%)
Computer Engineering (36.52%)
Verilog (26.72%)
Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (46.72%)
VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) (26.72%)
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (28.33%)
Python (Programming Language) (26.91%)
ModelSim (8.41%)
Hardware Design (42.39%)
Hardware Verification Language (6.82%)
Simulations (44.49%)
SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (25.44%)
Vivado (12.72%)

Necessary Skills

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

Oscilloscope (12.55%)
Digital Design (17.47%)
Algorithms (13.89%)
Git (Version Control System) (11.41%)
Architectural Design (10.75%)
Avionics (7.83%)
Printed Circuit Board (19.41%)
Circuit Design (7.67%)
Digital Electronics (9.17%)
Digital Signal Processing (19.08%)
Code Coverage (8.05%)
Computer Science (19.62%)
Version Control (11.79%)
Linux (12.09%)
Perl (Programming Language) (14.79%)
Hardware Architecture (9.88%)
Systems Engineering (9.28%)
Automation (6.82%)
AutoCAD (1.72%)
Logic Analyzer (9.53%)
Physics (9.91%)
MATLAB (14.66%)
Prototyping (10.4%)
Software Development (4.94%)
Electronics (14.71%)
Embedded Systems (13.92%)
Microarchitecture (6.99%)
Schematic Capture (11.65%)
C++ (Programming Language) (19.98%)
Printed Circuit Board Design (6.2%)
Signal Integrity (11.74%)
Apache Subversion (7.34%)
Tcl (Programming Language) (9.77%)
Radio Frequency (9.5%)
Systems Architecture (5.51%)
Electronic Hardware (2.76%)
Static Timing Analysis (10.21%)
Test Planning (18.56%)
Systems Design (6.55%)
Engineering Design Process (4.59%)
Radar (7.64%)
Hardware Description Language (HDL) (12.53%)
Firmware (14.74%)
Electronic Design Automation (4.83%)
Project Management (6.55%)
Product Lifecycle Management (6%)
Signal Processing (9.12%)
New Product Development (10.59%)
Simulink (8.05%)
Software Engineering (8.49%)
Serial Peripheral Interface (7.37%)
Sensors (7.64%)
Scripting (18.09%)
Microcontrollers (4.99%)
Test Equipment (7.12%)
I2C (7.94%)
Export Control (11.05%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Programmable Logic Devices (2.02%)
Digital Filter (3.25%)
Altera Quartus (4.45%)
Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (3.52%)
Oracle Virtual Machine (3.85%)
Concurrent Versions System (Software) (4.78%)
Gate Arrays (3.88%)
MicroBlaze (3.58%)
Questa Advanced Verification (Siemens EDA) (3.85%)
Switched-Mode Power Supply (1.26%)

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.

Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (13.25%)
Questa Advanced Verification (Siemens EDA) (5.72%)
Concurrent Versions System (Software) (7.09%)
Digital Filter (4.82%)
Hardware Verification Language (10.13%)
Python (Programming Language) (39.97%)
Oracle Virtual Machine (5.72%)
PCI Express (29.14%)
SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (37.78%)
Verilog (39.68%)
Vivado (18.89%)
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (42.08%)

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 Development Engineer
ASIC and FPGA Design Engineer
Digital Design Engineer
Electrical Hardware Design Engineer
CPU Architect
ASIC Design Verification Engineer
ASIC Engineer
Thermal 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 Hardware Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Actalent (202)
Boeing (202)
Apple (200)
Raytheon Technologies (181)
Amazon (175)
Blue Origin (171)
Meta (161)
BAE Systems (82)
L3Harris Technologies (72)
Randstad (66)

North Carolina

Actalent (15)
Lenovo (8)
Randstad (5)
Google (3)
Nvidia (3)
Apidel Technologies (3)
Protingent (3)
Zachary Piper Solutions (3)
Cirrus Logic (2)
Reperio Human Capital (2)

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