Hardware & Silicon Skills in Demand

Hardware and silicon engineers design chips, boards and the systems around them. The toolchain is specialized, and postings name specific design languages and verification methods more precisely than most fields.

We analyzed 218 U.S. job descriptions from 66 employers for Hardware & Silicon roles. The most requested skills were Python (35%), ASIC (21%) and Verilog (20%).

4,344open U.S. roles tracked
4 yearstypical experience asked for
$180,000median advertised pay, from 381 roles that state it

Languages

  • Python35%
  • Verilog20%
  • C++14%
  • MATLAB6%
  • SQL3%

Hardware

  • ASIC21%
  • PCB design20%
  • RTL design18%
  • FPGA14%
  • CAD13%
  • Semiconductor processes3%

Product & design

  • Prototyping17%
  • Agile6%
  • Project management5%

Operations

  • Root cause analysis13%
  • Supply chain10%
  • Six Sigma3%

Cloud & infrastructure

  • Linux11%

AI & machine learning

  • Machine learning6%

Business tools

  • Excel5%

Finance & legal

  • Regulatory compliance5%

Data

  • Statistics3%

Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since September 25, 2026. Shares show how many of the sampled descriptions mention a skill, so a low share can still be a firm requirement in the roles that list it. We sample a limited number of descriptions per employer so that no single company dominates, and we only report figures backed by several employers. Advertised pay comes from a different group of roles than H1B filings, so the two are not directly comparable.

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