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 71 Hardware Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 3755 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 | 78.27% |
| Master's Degree | 47.72% |
| Doctoral Degree | 20.56% |
| Other | 1.04% |
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 | 9.56% |
| 3 to 5 years | 36.08% |
| 6 to 8 years | 21.31% |
| 9+ years | 33.05% |
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 (28.26%)
- Problem Solving (15.47%)
- Innovation (14.94%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (14.94%)
- Leadership (14.89%)
- Mathematics (11.32%)
- Detail Oriented (9.05%)
- Self-Motivation (8.87%)
- Research (8.76%)
- Writing (8.55%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Electrical Engineering (46.32%)
- C (Programming Language) (21.05%)
- Printed Circuit Board (19.77%)
- Python (Programming Language) (26.53%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (46.6%)
- Hardware Description Language (HDL) (12.26%)
- Debugging (38.95%)
- Computer Engineering (36.26%)
- Hardware Design (42.66%)
- Simulations (45.19%)
- Application Specific Integrated Circuits (27.75%)
- Verilog (27.23%)
- VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) (27.12%)
- ModelSim (8.76%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Digital Design (17.3%)
- Design Verification (20.45%)
- Git (Version Control System) (11.55%)
- Electromagnetic Interference And Compatibility (EMC/EMI) (2.69%)
- Oscilloscope (12.29%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (19.72%)
- Automation (6.81%)
- Artificial Intelligence (5.59%)
- Algorithms (14.02%)
- Systems Engineering (9.41%)
- Electronic Circuits (5.34%)
- Architectural Design (10.6%)
- Linux (11.83%)
- JIRA (2.09%)
- Digital Signal Processing (19.61%)
- Perl (Programming Language) (15.22%)
- Product Lifecycle Management (6.13%)
- Electronic Design Automation (4.56%)
- Computer Science (19.15%)
- Embedded Software (3.8%)
- Engineering Design Process (4.75%)
- Digital Electronics (9.17%)
- Circuit Design (7.84%)
- Embedded Systems (13.7%)
- Firmware (14.02%)
- Electronic Hardware (2.87%)
- Electronics (15.05%)
- Hardware Architecture (9.71%)
- Version Control (12.04%)
- Test Planning (18.85%)
- PCI Express (19.28%)
- Software Engineering (8.6%)
- Physics (9.98%)
- Simulink (8.3%)
- Radio Frequency (10.12%)
- Systems Design (6.51%)
- Project Management (6.89%)
- Logic Analyzer (9.74%)
- MATLAB (14.97%)
- SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (25.52%)
- Schematic Capture (11.85%)
- New Product Development (10.41%)
- Signal Processing (9.28%)
- Printed Circuit Board Design (6.32%)
- Prototyping (10.17%)
- Static Timing Analysis (10.31%)
- Tcl (Programming Language) (9.82%)
- Systems Architecture (5.72%)
- Microcontrollers (5.04%)
- Apache Subversion (7.19%)
- Serial Peripheral Interface (7.73%)
- Export Control (11.17%)
- Test Equipment (6.97%)
- Signal Integrity (11.5%)
- Scripting (18.42%)
- Sensors (7.7%)
- I2C (7.62%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Low Power Design (2.25%)
- Programmable Logic Devices (1.87%)
- Altera Quartus (4.69%)
- Digital Filter (3.47%)
- Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (3.63%)
- Oracle Virtual Machine (3.85%)
- Hardware Verification Language (6.54%)
- Vivado (12.5%)
- Gate Arrays (3.58%)
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.
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (78.99%)
- Hardware Verification Language (11.08%)
- Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (6.16%)
- Oracle Virtual Machine (6.53%)
- Verilog (46.16%)
- Gate Arrays (6.07%)
- ModelSim (14.85%)
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
- Staff Hardware 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.
- Hardware Engineer (General)
- Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer
- Electronics Engineer (General)
- Firmware Engineer
- Signal Processing Engineer
- Electronic Design Engineer
- Computer Circuit Design Engineer
- Hardware Test Engineer
- Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer
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
- Boeing (203)
- Actalent (202)
- Apple (192)
- Raytheon Technologies (191)
- Amazon (181)
- Blue Origin (163)
- Meta (160)
- BAE Systems (87)
- L3Harris Technologies (78)
- Randstad (71)
North Carolina
- Actalent (10)
- Lenovo (6)
- Randstad (5)
- Google (3)
- Nvidia (3)
- Apidel Technologies (3)
- Zachary Piper Solutions (3)
- GE Vernova (2)
- Larsen & Toubro (2)
- Cirrus Logic (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!
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.