National
| Median wages (2008) |
$46.83 hourly, $97,400 annual |
| Employment (2006) |
79,000 employees |
| Projected growth (2006-2016) |
Slower than average (3% to 6%)
|
| Projected need (2006-2016) |
28,000 additional employees |
17-2061.00 - Computer Hardware Engineers
Research, design, develop, and test computer or computer-related equipment for commercial, industrial, military, or scientific use. May supervise the manufacturing and installation of computer or computer-related equipment and components.
Sample of reported job titles:
Hardware Engineer, Engineer, Systems Engineer, Design Engineer, Field Service Engineer, Network Engineer, Project Engineer, Systems Integration Engineer
Tasks
- Update knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.
- Provide technical support to designers, marketing and sales departments, suppliers, engineers and other team members throughout the product development and implementation process.
- Test and verify hardware and support peripherals to ensure that they meet specifications and requirements, by recording and analyzing test data.
- Monitor functioning of equipment and make necessary modifications to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
- Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan layout, including type of computers and peripheral equipment modifications.
- Build, test, and modify product prototypes using working models or theoretical models constructed with computer simulation.
- Analyze user needs and recommend appropriate hardware.
- Direct technicians, engineering designers or other technical support personnel as needed.
- Confer with engineering staff and consult specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.
- Select hardware and material, assuring compliance with specifications and product requirements.
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Tools & Technology
Tools used in this occupation:
| Circuit tester — Circuit memory testers; Circuit testers |
| Electronic measuring probes — Logic probes; Probe card devices; Probe stations |
| Low voltage alternating and direct current AC DC panelboards — Alternating current AC power sources; Direct current DC power supplies |
| Oscilloscopes — Communications signal analyzers; Sampling oscilloscopes |
| Signal generators — Function generators; Pattern generators; Universal source generators |
Technology used in this occupation:
| Analytical or scientific software — Cadence Dracula; SAS software; The Mathworks MATLAB; Xilinx Synthesis Technology XST |
| Computer aided design CAD software — Cadence Concept; Electronic design automation EDA software; Mathsoft Mathcad; Xilinx ISE Foundation |
| Data base user interface and query software — Database software; Microsoft Access; Structured query language SQL |
| Development environment software — C; Microsoft Visual Basic; Register transfer language RTL; SystemVerilog |
| Object or component oriented development software — C++; Microsoft Visual C# .NET; Practical extraction and reporting language Perl; SKILL |
