Designing and building the physical machines and microchips that all software runs on, a field booming thanks to AI and new US chip factories.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Computer Hardware Engineer: Designs and tests computer parts like processors, circuit boards, memory, and servers. Typical pay $162k.
Chip Design Engineer (ASIC/RTL): Designs the logic inside computer chips, like the AI accelerators and phone processors made by Nvidia, Apple, and others. Typical pay $175k.
Chip Verification Engineer: Tries to find every bug in a chip design before it's manufactured, because fixing it afterward costs millions. Typical pay $165k.
Semiconductor Process Engineer: Develops and improves the hundreds of steps used to manufacture chips in a cleanroom fab. Typical pay $125k.
Photolithography Engineer: Runs and improves the incredibly precise machines that print chip patterns with light. Typical pay $140k.
FPGA Engineer: Programs reconfigurable chips used in radar, satellites, high-speed trading, and medical scanners. Typical pay $135k.
Analog & Mixed-Signal Circuit Designer: Designs the chip circuits that deal with real-world signals: power, radio, sensors, and audio. Typical pay $165k.
Physical Design Engineer: Takes a chip design and figures out where billions of tiny transistors and wires physically go. Typical pay $165k.
CPU/GPU Architect: Decides how a new processor will be organized inside, years before it is built. Typical pay $220k.
IC Layout Designer: Draws the actual shapes of transistors and wires that get printed onto a computer chip. Typical pay $115k.
Signal Integrity Engineer: Makes sure electrical signals racing through circuit boards and chips arrive clean, without noise or errors. Typical pay $150k.
Post-Silicon Validation Engineer: Tests the very first real chips that come back from the factory to find any bugs before mass production. Typical pay $145k.
Design-for-Test (DFT) Engineer: Adds hidden testing circuits to chips so the factory can quickly check every one for defects. Typical pay $155k.
Semiconductor Reverse Engineer: Takes apart competitors' chips layer by layer, imaging and mapping them to learn how they were built, for patent cases and industry reports. Typical pay $120k.
Chip Design CAD Engineer: Builds and maintains the software tool chains chip designers use, so a billion-transistor design can flow from code to the factory without errors. Typical pay $140k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Failure Analysis Engineer: Investigates why chips and electronics fail, using microscopes, X-rays, and lab tests. Typical pay $105k.
Printed Circuit Board Designer: Lays out the green circuit boards that hold chips and connect them inside every electronic device. Typical pay $82k.
Hardware Test Engineer: Designs tests that prove new devices work under heat, cold, vibration, and years of use. Typical pay $108k.
Electronics Assembler: Builds and solders circuit boards, cables, and electronic devices. Typical pay $42k.
Computer Repair Technician: Fixes broken computers, laptops, phones, and other machines. Typical pay $45k.
Counterfeit Electronic Parts Inspector: Examines computer chips under microscopes and X-rays to catch fakes before they end up in airplanes, missiles or medical devices. Typical pay $52k.
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.