Design a board to test chips
Plan a board for testing a new processor, then build lab circuits to study how it behaves.
Career profile
Computer Hardware Engineer
Computer hardware engineers design and test circuit boards and chips that make computers work.
Failed prototype boards are yours to figure out and redesign. The draw is turning an idea of how a computer should behave into passing hardware.
A day in the life
Verify a unit against its design
Run a system that copies the planned chip and see if one processor unit behaves as designed.
Debug a failed hardware test
Line up test logs with requirements, alter the prototype, then rerun the check to see if it helped.
Review the board-software interface
Step through the interface specification with fellow engineers to settle how board and software trade data.
Quick facts
Bachelor’s degree
United States
$161,740/year
United States · May 2025
9% projected growth
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Bachelor’s degreeUsually computer engineering or a related field.
Pay
$161,740/yearNational median; hourly equivalent $77.76.
Outlook
9% projected growthAbout 4,100 openings annually, including replacements.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You like tracing a wrong result back to its cause.
- You enjoy connecting programming ideas to physical circuits.
- You want to explain how you tested something, not just show that it worked once.
Things to weigh
- A fault can take repeated experiments to reproduce. Progress may mean ruling out another explanation.
- New computer technology keeps changing what you need to learn.
Where AI may help
Some chip verification teams are bringing artificial intelligence (AI) into writing test code and investigating failures.
What people still lead
Engineers still decide which behavior needs checking and work with chip designers to close gaps in the tests.
What we can’t predict yet
How much checking and debugging these tools can take over reliably remains unsettled, especially when a design introduces unfamiliar behavior.
Pay in context
Earnings
These national wages describe the occupation, not a starting offer.
The median and spread
The median was $161,740 a year, equivalent to $77.76 an hour. The 10th and 90th percentiles were $92,940 and $225,330. Those percentiles are not beginner and senior pay grades.
Workplace type matters
Annual medians were $171,820 in scientific research and development, $166,150 in semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing, and $155,470 in computer systems design and related services.
Openings include replacements
The projected 4,100 annual openings include people leaving the occupation. They are not all newly created positions or current vacancies.
Getting started
Study computer engineering
- What the route involves
- Combine circuits and programming with digital design labs. Build projects that connect a processor, memory, and software.
- What it can lead to
- This is the typical degree route into entry-level hardware engineering.
Study electrical engineering with digital hardware
- What the route involves
- Earn an electrical engineering degree and choose digital systems labs where you design, build, and debug circuits using processors and memory.
- What it can lead to
- Electrical engineering is another relevant degree for entering this occupation.
A relevant bachelor’s degree is the usual starting point.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get established
Learn one hardware unit well enough to explain its expected behavior and investigate a failing test.
Own a larger set of checks
Develop tests for a whole unit, identify behavior the tests miss, and discuss failures with its designers.
Lead verification
One technical path is leading chip verification: decide the testing scope and coordinate checks across design teams.
Where you can work
Device-development labs
Board-focused roles combine design work with physical test circuits and debugging early versions of hardware. You deal with how a processor behaves inside a working system.
- Indoors
- Lab
Chip verification teams
Much of the work happens through computer models and systems that imitate chip behavior. You work closely with designers to find problems before the design becomes a manufactured chip.
- Indoors
- Office
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
On paper, design a one-bit selector: two inputs each hold 0 or 1, and a third input chooses which value becomes the output. List all eight input combinations and the expected outputs. Ask someone to check your table. Notice whether you enjoy defining behavior precisely and hunting for missed cases.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Computer Hardware Engineers — Occupational Outlook Handbook. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- O*NET OnLine / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Wages: Computer Hardware Engineers. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- O*NET OnLine. 17-2061.00 — Computer Hardware Engineers. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- Apple. Hardware Systems Engineer — Board Design. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- NVIDIA. ASIC Verification Engineer — New College Grad 2026. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- NVIDIA. Senior ASIC Verification Engineer. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Computer Engineering Curriculum Starting Fall 2023. Accessed 2026-10-04.
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. ECE 385 — Digital Systems Laboratory. Accessed 2026-10-04.