Also called: RTL Designer, Digital Design Engineer, SoC Designer
Designs the logic inside computer chips, like the AI accelerators and phone processors made by Nvidia, Apple, and others.
You write hardware description code (Verilog) describing billions of transistors, then simulate it to make sure a new AI chip computes correctly. A chip can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars, so every bug matters.
Estimate; AI chip companies pay large stock grants.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in electrical/computer engineering; master's common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering.
Growing much faster than average. High demand from AI chips and US CHIPS Act investment.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI now drafts chip logic and suggests fixes, but AI-chip demand is high and final design calls stay human.
Classes: AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science A.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2061.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.