Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 66,200 people employed as computer hardware engineers in the United States. The median annual salary is $119,600. Entry level employees earn approximately $70,100 per year and senior employees earn approximately $192,110 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Provide training and support to system designers and users.
• Monitor functioning of equipment and make necessary modifications to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
• Specify power supply requirements and configuration, drawing on system performance expectations and design specifications.
• Assemble and modify existing pieces of equipment to meet special needs.
• Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan layout, including type of computers and peripheral equipment modifications.
• Recommend purchase of equipment to control dust, temperature, and humidity in area of system installation.
• Update knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.
• Design and develop computer hardware and support peripherals, including central processing units (CPUs), support logic, microprocessors, custom integrated circuits, and printers and disk drives.
• Confer with engineering staff and consult specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.
• Build, test, and modify product prototypes, using working models or theoretical models constructed with computer simulation.
• Write detailed functional specifications that document the hardware development process and support hardware introduction.
• Test and verify hardware and support peripherals to ensure that they meet specifications and requirements, by recording and analyzing test data.
• Direct technicians, engineering designers or other technical support personnel as needed.
• Provide technical support to designers, marketing and sales departments, suppliers, engineers and other team members throughout the product development and implementation process.
• Select hardware and material, assuring compliance with specifications and product requirements.
• Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
• Analyze user needs and recommend appropriate hardware.
• Evaluate factors such as reporting formats required, cost constraints, and need for security restrictions to determine hardware configuration.

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