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 163 U.S. job descriptions from 58 employers for Hardware & Silicon roles. The most requested skills were Python (30%), PCB design (20%) and Verilog (19%).

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

Languages

  • Python30%
  • Verilog19%
  • C++11%
  • MATLAB7%

Hardware

  • PCB design20%
  • ASIC18%
  • RTL design17%
  • CAD13%
  • FPGA12%

Product & design

  • Prototyping18%
  • Agile7%
  • Project management6%

Operations

  • Root cause analysis10%
  • Supply chain10%
  • Six Sigma4%

Cloud & infrastructure

  • Linux10%

Business tools

  • Excel6%

Finance & legal

  • Regulatory compliance4%

Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since October 8, 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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