Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer designs and develops integrated circuits used in electronic devices and communications systems. Designs circuitry and builds circuitry frameworks for products and systems.
Job Outlook
There were 107 Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 5115 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Hardware Engineer industry, which includes the Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Integrated Circuit (IC) 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 $157,567.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $147,883.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $132,198.
Education and Experience
Posted Integrated Circuit (IC) 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 | 58.24% |
| Master's Degree | 46.3% |
| Doctoral Degree | 31.93% |
| Other | 0.49% |
Posted Integrated Circuit (IC) 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 | 6.74% |
| 3 to 5 years | 35.85% |
| 6 to 8 years | 19.78% |
| 9+ years | 37.63% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Integrated Circuit (IC) 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 (39.77%)
- Problem Solving (21.19%)
- Innovation (19%)
- Leadership (14.17%)
- Packaging And Labeling (13.45%)
- Management (12.2%)
- Writing (12.08%)
- Planning (10.65%)
- Mentorship (10.09%)
- Teamwork (9.85%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits (9.99%)
- Spectre Circuit Simulator (8.07%)
- Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (11.64%)
- Analog Electronics (16.56%)
- Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) (23.19%)
- Electrical Engineering (43.9%)
- Integrated Circuit Design (18.4%)
- Circuit Design (22.71%)
- Debugging (28.66%)
- Transistor (13.9%)
- Python (Programming Language) (28.56%)
- SPICE (Simulation Tool) (11.03%)
- Cadence Virtuoso (9.59%)
- Scripting (25.16%)
- Simulations (40.37%)
- Linux Virtual Server (10.9%)
- Analog Design (13.27%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Semiconductors (14.53%)
- Design Verification (11.89%)
- C (Programming Language) (6.59%)
- Automation (13.37%)
- Electronic Circuits (4.5%)
- Printed Circuit Board (10.1%)
- Computer Science (10.41%)
- Computer Engineering (15.42%)
- R (Programming Language) (3.99%)
- Engineering Design Process (3.68%)
- Electronic Engineering (3.36%)
- Integrated Circuits (12.95%)
- Electronics (6.87%)
- Perl (Programming Language) (20.74%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (3.91%)
- MATLAB (14.24%)
- Nodes (Networking) (10.08%)
- Digital Signal Processing (4.12%)
- Power Management (6.02%)
- Physics (16.84%)
- Radio Frequency (11.07%)
- Voltage (9.59%)
- New Product Development (12.32%)
- Test Planning (10.29%)
- Advertisement (8.83%)
- SystemVerilog (Direct Programming Interface) (8.11%)
- Verilog (15.29%)
- Physical Design (16.46%)
- Signal Integrity (11.62%)
- Tcl (Programming Language) (15.76%)
- Application Specific Integrated Circuits (16.81%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Semiconductor Device Physics (2.62%)
- Low Power Design (6.53%)
- Very-Large-Scale Integration (6.21%)
- Behavioral Modeling (4.75%)
- Integrated Circuit Layout (1.52%)
- Memory Built-In Self-Tests (2.05%)
- Low-Dropout Regulator (4.37%)
- Jitter (3.36%)
- Electronic Oscillator (4.44%)
- Static Timing Analysis (9.48%)
- Electrical Rule Check (3.99%)
- Chip Design (4.92%)
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.
- Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits (12.67%)
- Low Power Design (8.28%)
- Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (14.76%)
- Semiconductor Device Physics (3.32%)
- Spectre Circuit Simulator (10.24%)
- Chip Design (6.24%)
- Very-Large-Scale Integration (7.88%)
- Behavioral Modeling (6.03%)
- Circuit Design (28.8%)
- Integrated Circuit Layout (1.93%)
- Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) (29.42%)
- Integrated Circuit Design (23.34%)
- Transistor (17.63%)
- Python (Programming Language) (36.23%)
- Memory Built-In Self-Tests (2.6%)
- SPICE (Simulation Tool) (13.99%)
- Static Timing Analysis (12.03%)
- Linux Virtual Server (13.83%)
- Cadence Virtuoso (12.17%)
- Electrical Rule Check (5.06%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Analog Design Engineer
- Analog/Mixed Signal Design Engineer
- Analog IC Design Engineer
- Signal Integrity Engineer
- Principal Engineer
- Analog/Mixed Signal IC Design Engineer
- Layout Engineer
- Protection Engineer
- Power Design Engineer
- RTL 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.
- Circuit Design Engineer
- Hardware Design Engineer
- Electronic Design Engineer
- Hardware Engineer (General)
- Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer
- Hardware Quality Assurance / Test Engineer
- Signal Processing Engineer
- Electronics Engineer (General)
- Research & Development Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Apple (831)
- Micron Technology (152)
- Marvell Technology (141)
- Nvidia (125)
- AMD (114)
- Skyworks (112)
- Electrical Consultants (112)
- Boeing (101)
- ARM (98)
- Intel (96)
North Carolina
- General Dynamics (9)
- Rambus (8)
- Moseley Technical Services (8)
- ARM (4)
- Cirrus Logic (4)
- Renesas Electronics (4)
- Johnson & Johnson (4)
- Qorvo (4)
- Cadence Design Systems (4)
- Microsoft (4)
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.