Circuit Design Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Circuit Design Engineer designs, develops, and tests analog and digital circuits within complex electrical systems in areas such as aeronautics, power industry, vehicle design, etc.
Job Outlook
There were 24 Circuit Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1536 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Electrical Engineer industry, which includes the Circuit Design Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Circuit Design 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 $143,094.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $143,094.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Circuit Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $122,445.
Education and Experience
Posted Circuit Design 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 | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 62.11% |
| Master's Degree | 38.87% |
| Doctoral Degree | 18.55% |
| Other | 1.69% |
Posted Circuit Design 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 | 8.69% |
| 3 to 5 years | 41.78% |
| 6 to 8 years | 22.06% |
| 9+ years | 27.48% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Circuit Design 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 (41.08%)
- Innovation (16.15%)
- Problem Solving (15.62%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (13.74%)
- Management (10.94%)
- Packaging And Labeling (9.24%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (8.98%)
- Leadership (8.92%)
- Research (8.85%)
- Reliability (8.66%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- HyperLynx (8.58%)
- Printed Circuit Board (26.93%)
- Electrical Engineering (53.53%)
- Computer Engineering (19.34%)
- Circuit Design (53.6%)
- Debugging (22.24%)
- Radio Frequency (21.19%)
- Simulations (41.32%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Semiconductors (10.23%)
- Ansys Simulation Software (7.33%)
- Digital Design (7.79%)
- Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) (12.15%)
- Design Verification (7.66%)
- Laboratory Equipment (7%)
- C (Programming Language) (5.15%)
- Systems Engineering (13.73%)
- Computer-Aided Design (3.3%)
- Schematic Diagrams (2.38%)
- Telecommunications (5.02%)
- Automation (10.63%)
- Oscilloscope (18.15%)
- Analog Electronics (12.34%)
- Electronic Circuits (5.54%)
- Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) (10.56%)
- Electrical Networks (7.92%)
- Antenna (10.69%)
- Signal Generators (3.96%)
- Computer Science (4.55%)
- Integrated Circuit Design (8.91%)
- Digital Electronics (16.24%)
- Electronic Circuit Simulation (11.02%)
- Engineering Design Process (6.67%)
- Electronic Engineering (6.47%)
- Hardware Architecture (8.51%)
- Transistor (13.27%)
- Hardware Design (9.77%)
- Embedded Systems (5.02%)
- Electronics (13.27%)
- Perl (Programming Language) (6.8%)
- Firmware (7.26%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (15.58%)
- Logic Analyzer (2.84%)
- MATLAB (14.85%)
- Digital Signal Processing (4.82%)
- Python (Programming Language) (18.28%)
- Physics (13.53%)
- Schematic Capture (21.91%)
- Printed Circuit Board Design (12.41%)
- Verification And Validation (4.16%)
- SPICE (Simulation Tool) (14.92%)
- Project Management (2.84%)
- Cadence Virtuoso (5.74%)
- New Product Development (17.16%)
- Scripting (13%)
- PCI Express (13.2%)
- Network Routing (5.54%)
- USB (10.17%)
- Test Planning (11.09%)
- Advertisement (15.05%)
- Verilog (10.5%)
- Analog Design (6.47%)
- Test Equipment (8.78%)
- Electrical Circuit Analysis (7.72%)
- Pspice (7.85%)
- Signal Integrity (18.15%)
- Tcl (Programming Language) (5.74%)
- Radar (7.79%)
- Application Specific Integrated Circuits (6.53%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Ground Bounce (3.56%)
- Nanotime (3.5%)
- High-Speed Printed Circuit Board Design (4.55%)
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.
- HyperLynx (11.68%)
- Circuit Design (72.96%)
- Radio Frequency (28.84%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Circuit Design Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Signal Integrity Engineer
- Hardware Engineer
- Circuit Designer
- Principal Engineer
- Mixed Signal Design Engineer
- Engineering Principal
- Analog Circuit Design Engineer
- Survivability Engineer
- Circuit Engineer
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.
- Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer
- Hardware Design Engineer
- Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer
- Hardware Engineer (General)
- Electronic Design Engineer
- Electronics Engineer (General)
- Hardware Quality Assurance / Test Engineer
- Electrical Engineer (General)
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Circuit Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Apple (189)
- Northrop Grumman (108)
- Raytheon Technologies (71)
- General Motors (53)
- Micron Technology (47)
- Lockheed Martin (45)
- Actalent (39)
- Nvidia (28)
- Broadcom (27)
- The Judge Group (21)
North Carolina
- Actalent (6)
- Renesas Electronics (3)
- Apple (3)
- Skyworks (2)
- Celestica (2)
- Plexus (1)
- Garmin International (1)
- Technical Link (1)
- General Motors (1)
- Optomi (1)
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.