Also called: Chip Packaging Engineer
Designs how chips are stacked, connected and sealed into packages, a hot area as AI chips combine many 'chiplets' into one.
You work out how to stack memory chips on top of a processor with thousands of microscopic solder bumps, then test whether they survive heating and cooling a thousand times. Your packaging decides how fast and cool an AI chip can run.
Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 5 years after high school. Bachelor's in mechanical, materials or electrical engineering; often a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering.
Growing much faster than average. No separate BLS projection; the CHIPS Act is funding many new US fabs.
Low risk for 10 years. AI chips are driving a packaging boom; simulation helps, but building and testing new packages is hands-on engineering.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2199.
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.