Also called: Audio Signal Processing Engineer, Audio Algorithm Engineer
Writes the math and code behind noise-canceling headphones, voice assistants, and spatial audio.
You design an algorithm that cancels airplane engine noise in earbuds, test it with special dummy heads with microphones in their ears, and squeeze it to run on a tiny chip. Apple, Bose, Sonos, and game studios hire audio DSP engineers.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's or master's in electrical engineering or computer science with signal processing.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Music Technology, Physics.
Growing faster than average. BLS does not project this specialty separately; rating estimated from related occupations.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI now helps design and even replaces some audio algorithms with neural nets; engineers who ship them on chips stay needed.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP Computer Science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2072.
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