Firmware Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Firmware Engineer develops the programmable content in electronic hardware devices. Works for a hardware company developing software for each hardware platform. Alters, organizes and models the functionality of software for a variety of industries, including the automotive, health care and consumer electronics industries.
Job Outlook
There were 135 Firmware Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6535 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Computer Systems Engineer / Architect industry, which includes the Firmware Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Firmware 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 $112,683.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $94,081.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Firmware Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $92,648.
Education and Experience
Posted Firmware 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 | 1.25% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 70.68% |
| Master's Degree | 33.33% |
| Doctoral Degree | 7.41% |
| Other | 0.87% |
Posted Firmware 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 | 15.43% |
| 3 to 5 years | 52.04% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16.7% |
| 9+ years | 15.83% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Firmware 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 (36.83%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (21.99%)
- Problem Solving (18.94%)
- Management (13.37%)
- Self-Motivation (10.97%)
- Innovation (10.85%)
- Leadership (10.42%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (8.66%)
- Writing (8.63%)
- Planning (8.58%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Computer Science (45.02%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (20.45%)
- Firmware (94.46%)
- Embedded Systems (40.77%)
- Computer Engineering (37.14%)
- Bare Metal (10.42%)
- Electrical Engineering (44.03%)
- Embedded Software (23.64%)
- C (Programming Language) (54.98%)
- Real-Time Operating Systems (24.91%)
- Logic Analyzer (12.22%)
- Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (14.29%)
- Python (Programming Language) (34.58%)
- Microcontrollers (22.5%)
- Software Development (21.7%)
- Embedded Firmware (26.1%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (52.9%)
- Embedded C (8.86%)
- Linux (23.69%)
- Debugging (53.41%)
- Firmware Development (29.85%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Electronic Engineering (3.86%)
- Application Specific Integrated Circuits (3.34%)
- Unit Testing (11.72%)
- Simulations (11.2%)
- Automation (10.83%)
- Serial Peripheral Interface (26.33%)
- Bash (Scripting Language) (4.51%)
- TCP/IP (8.96%)
- PCI Express (8.91%)
- Integration Testing (4.26%)
- Programming Tools (5.25%)
- Peripheral Devices (7.78%)
- VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) (12.14%)
- Systems Architecture (5.17%)
- Version Control (14.27%)
- Code Review (10.7%)
- New Product Development (20.03%)
- Git (Version Control System) (15.23%)
- Control Systems (3.86%)
- Software Engineering (22.12%)
- Project Management (8.2%)
- Oscilloscope (18.18%)
- Device Drivers (10.9%)
- Internet Of Things (IoT) (7.8%)
- JIRA (6.07%)
- Communications Protocols (14.33%)
- Electronics (8.11%)
- Signal Processing (4.56%)
- Scripting (15.21%)
- Linux On Embedded Systems (9.16%)
- Agile Methodology (13.5%)
- Operating Systems (19.35%)
- Sensors (9.25%)
- Algorithms (18.25%)
- Test Automation (8.46%)
- Digital Signal Processing (11.89%)
- Perl (Programming Language) (4.59%)
- Test Planning (11.2%)
- USB (13.85%)
- Digital Design (2.07%)
- Verilog (10.05%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth) (5.92%)
- Hardware Interface Design (5.27%)
- ARM Architecture (5.39%)
- Joint Test Action (IEEE Standards) (5.64%)
- Boot Loaders (3.86%)
- Vivado (4.08%)
- Reduced Instruction Set Computing (1.14%)
- ModelSim (3.03%)
- FreeRTOS (4.45%)
- Stm32 (1.48%)
- Board Bring-Up (4.15%)
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.
- Firmware Development (44.32%)
- Board Bring-Up (6.17%)
- Microcontrollers (33.41%)
- Embedded C (13.16%)
- Embedded Software (35.11%)
- FreeRTOS (6.6%)
- Joint Test Action (IEEE Standards) (8.37%)
- Real-Time Operating Systems (36.99%)
- Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (21.21%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Firmware Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Embedded Firmware Engineer
- Embedded Software/Firmware Engineer
- Firmware Developer
- Staff Firmware Engineer
- Software/Firmware Engineer
- Firmware Test Engineer
- Firmware Development Engineer
- Firmware Design Engineer
- Firmware Engineering Intern
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.
- Hardware Engineer (General)
- Hardware Design Engineer
- Signal Processing Engineer
- Electronics Engineer (General)
- Electronic Design Engineer
- Research & Development Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Firmware Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (391)
- Apple (255)
- Zt Systems (158)
- Intel (145)
- Google (116)
- AMD (116)
- Tesla (113)
- CyberCoders (72)
- Motion Recruitment (64)
- Western Digital (58)
North Carolina
- Lenovo (19)
- Actalent (11)
- Reperio Human Capital (8)
- Itron (7)
- Honeywell International (4)
- Schneider Electric (4)
- CyberCoders (4)
- Xylem (4)
- Oxit (3)
- Vontier (2)
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.