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Job outlook for electrical systems designers in the United States
Electrical systems designer job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected electrical systems designer job growth rate is 3% from 2018-2028.
About 9,800 new jobs for electrical systems designers are projected over the next decade.
Electrical systems designer salaries have increased 7% for electrical systems designers in the last 5 years.
There are over 9,916 electrical systems designers currently employed in the United States.
There are 126,502 active electrical systems designer job openings in the US.
The average electrical systems designer salary is $83,110.
Are electrical systems designer jobs in demand?
Electrical systems designer job and salary trends over time
Electrical systems designer jobs over time
Electrical systems designer job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9,916 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 9,873 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 9,892 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 9,941 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 9,774 | 0.00% |
Average electrical systems designer salary over time
Electrical systems designer salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $83,110 | $39.96 | +2.3% |
| 2024 | $81,214 | $39.05 | +2.0% |
| 2023 | $79,656 | $38.30 | +1.7% |
| 2022 | $78,354 | $37.67 | +0.9% |
| 2021 | $77,653 | $37.33 | +1.3% |
Electrical systems designer jobs by state
Most common states for electrical systems designers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 235 | 34% |
| 2 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,686 | 23% |
| 3 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 821 | 20% |
| 4 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 273 | 20% |
| 5 | Vermont | 623,657 | 122 | 20% |
| 6 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 109 | 19% |
| 7 | Arizona | 7,016,270 | 1,253 | 18% |
| 8 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 564 | 18% |
| 9 | Delaware | 961,939 | 177 | 18% |
| 10 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 139 | 18% |
| 11 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 1,728 | 17% |
| 12 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 952 | 17% |
| 13 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 176 | 17% |
| 14 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 148 | 17% |
| 15 | Alaska | 739,795 | 129 | 17% |
| 16 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 564 | 16% |
| 17 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 455 | 16% |
| 18 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 307 | 16% |
| 19 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 858 | 15% |
| 20 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 320 | 15% |
Most common cities for electrical systems designers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fountain Valley | 1 | 2% | $98,494 |
| 2 | Novi | 1 | 2% | $79,763 |
| 3 | Dearborn | 1 | 1% | $79,759 |
| 4 | Huntsville | 1 | 1% | $82,383 |
| 5 | Wichita | 1 | 0% | $77,269 |
Electrical Systems Designer job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of electrical systems designer experts
Gonzaga University
Stevens Institute of Technology
California State University - Fresno
University of Alabama at Birmingham
San Diego State University
Jackson State University
University of Utah
Old Dominion University
Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
University of Central Florida
Tufts University
Michigan Technological University
Kennesaw State University
University of California, Davis
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Wright State University
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Steven Schennum Ph.D. P.E.: The most important skill is the ability to learn new things, and especially to unlearn things you “know” after evidence demonstrates that these things are not true. Learn how to analyze information. Your intuition, simulations, and results should all be in alignment. If they are not, then dig deeper. Learn the terminology and jargon specific to your company and your projects. Spend time reading. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be intimidated by new software.
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Min Song: Communication skills and innovative thinking skills. As emerging technologies continue to be complex and multidisciplinary, it’s important to be able to communicate with professionals in diverse disciplines. Taking robotics, for example, the electrical engineer must be able to work with mechanical and biomechanical engineers, computer engineers, software engineers, artificial intelligence experts, cognitive scientists, system engineers, etc. A person will be able to generate innovative ideas only if the person has a complete and comprehensive understanding of the entire system and can work well with other individuals with a range of expertise.
What will help Electrical Systems Designers increase their earning potential?
Hovannes Kulhandjian Ph.D.: Stay Curious and Keep Learning: The field of electrical engineering is constantly evolving. Stay up to date with the latest advancements and technologies through continuous learning and professional development. Build a Strong Foundation: Focus on mastering the core principles of electrical engineering to provide a strong foundation for your career. Network: Build professional relationships with peers, mentors, and industry experts. Attend conferences and seminars to expand your network and learn from others. Gain Practical Experience: Look for internships, co-op positions, or entry-level jobs that provide hands-on experience. This practical exposure will help you apply your knowledge and stand out in the job market. Develop Soft Skills: Communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills are crucial in any engineering role. Cultivate these skills to work effectively with others and advance your career.
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Systems Designer?
Arie Nakhmani: Electrical Engineering combines a dozen sub-fields such as power systems, telecommunications, embedded systems, machine learning/AI, hardware design, signal analysis, IoT, etc., and jobs in these different subfields could look completely different. Some involve office work with the computer designing algorithms or optimizing processes, others might involve inspecting power transmission lines with drones in the middle of the forest. Some jobs include testing airplane engines and others designing microchips and working in clean rooms.
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Arie Nakhmani: Electrical Engineering has always (from its inception) been a good profession to enter, but now it is better than ever. Now everything is becoming Electrical Engineering, and the world cannot survive without it even for a few days. Electrical Engineering is the most necessary profession for the survival of modern society.
What will help Electrical Systems Designers increase their earning potential?
Arie Nakhmani: People who have EE degrees like being able to choose from a variety of EE sub-fields and being able to enter new areas because they learn science fundamentals and math, critical thinking, and the ability to solve difficult problems that are very helpful in life regardless of the job they pick. People dislike that solving difficult problems is difficult and requires a lot of effort. Not all are ready to put their effort in.
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Systems Designer?
Dr. Arif Engin: Electrical engineers solve problems by skillfully applying mathematics and science. Electrical engineering classes are challenging at college, and electrical engineers must embrace lifelong learning to remain at the top of their skills. In the end, seeing the results of their work in a finished product is a rewarding experience.
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Arif Engin: Electrical engineering graduates are sought by a wide range of employers in government and industry for many different types of work. The top occupations in electrical engineering fields are projected to grow and sometimes require an advanced degree.
Mahmoud Manzoul
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Jackson State UniversityJackson State University
Electrical, Electronics, And Communications Engineering
What will help Electrical Systems Designers increase their earning potential?
Mahmoud Manzoul: Maximizing salary potential hinges on thorough preparation during college. I cannot stress enough the importance of securing internships before completing your degree. Internships not only facilitate networking with seasoned engineers but also foster the development of essential soft skills crucial for professional success.
Florian Solzbacher
Department Chair, Professor, Elect & Computer EngineeringUniversity of Utah
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
What skills stand out on Electrical Systems Designer resumes?
Florian Solzbacher: Examples of having applied the knowledge gained in their studies to practical examples of solving engineering problems that require the combination of skills and at least some understanding of system engineering aspects are important signals that graduating engineers are ready to be productive in a real-world setting are always important. Obviously, participating in projects that address current "hot topic" problems, e.g., in robotics, AI/machine learning, power systems, biomedical applications, or that resonate with specific problems an employer is currently working on, will raise a student's profile.
Supplemental skills, such as Entrepreneurial or business training, can enhance and differentiate a student's resume. This shows that an engineer is not solely focused on the core technical engineering skills but does have an understanding of the driving forces and their interaction in a real-world business setting, that are not only part of the design requirements for a product (e.g., design to cost), but also often drive the selection of technical solution paths, after all, every development and product has to make business sense. Imagine two young engineers proposing a solution to their manager for a new product: one maybe even over-exceeds the technical requirements, but the development and/or manufacturing and servicing effort and cost is significantly higher than a colleagues solution that may only just about reach the requirements, or maybe even compromise on some specifications, but that is far cheaper to develop, make and service and that may allow entering a far larger market- chances are very high that the business may decide to go for the "inferior" solution from a technical point of view, that is, however, the better product. This supplemental skill set is a significant competitive advantage to have as an engineer.
What soft skills should all Electrical Systems Designers possess?
Florian Solzbacher: Engineering is about teamwork. All major quantum leaps and most products require extensive system engineering and diverse skills. Engineers need to be able to understand the languages and workflows not only across engineering disciplines but also ranging into business, legal and ethical aspects of their work. This includes communication and project management skills.
What skills will help Electrical Systems Designers earn the most?
Florian Solzbacher: The ability to solve problems efficiently and effectively (i.e., fast and cost-effective) really is critical to companies: every month delay in completion delays revenue and income, which may even dwarf the additional engineering cost. Significantly increased development cost also raises the cost of the product, impacting margins. Developments that come with significant after-sales service and support costs also have to be considered.
From experience, there are, of course, "expert tracks" in many companies that allow an engineer to reach very high compensation levels because they are one of a few who solve specific complicated problems. In some cases, this can go all the way to below board level. In most cases, however, management skills (personnel, projects, budgets) lead to tracks that eventually increase management of engineering activities and decrease the active engineering. In recent years, more and more high-tech companies have moved to have engineers lead the entire business as CEO.
Starting your own business is another path to high incomes, but associated with significant risks, and initially possibly much lower income than a job at an established company.
Interpersonal skills - which do not often come easy to engineers who tend to be focused on solving technical problems - must also never be underestimated because so much in solving real-world problems requires communication and balancing competing needs and resources. And we all stand and fall with the team and the people that make up the team. Long term, an engineering leader who is able to coalesce a strong team around a target objective and motivate his team and who is able to mediate inter-team challenges tends to be far more successful than managers who ignore those aspects.
What type of skills will young Electrical Systems Designers need?
Michel Audette Ph.D.: One skill that is timeless is the ability to communicate effectively, such as taking a complex design process and distilling it into intuitive slides or reports that lend themselves for senior managers to process in order to come to a decision. An engineer who has that ability will always have some tools in his/her toolbox that makes that individual attractive to a company and to the local technical ecosystem, thus a ripe target for headhunters who willing to champion them to companies looking for top talent. Moreover, speaking and writing well also comes with a vital component of diplomacy, especially in the context of increasingly distributed company workforce: the ability not just to get on with colleagues from different parts of the world, increasingly heterogeneous in terms of gender and possibly sexual preference, but embrace them for who they are. This is often maps to opportunities to travel, as some collaborations lead to meetings face to face, post-covid.
This embrace of heterogeneity is even more relevant in that technical problems being solved are increasingly multi-disciplinary, so that an engineer may need to interact with biologists, physicians, clothing or furniture designers, mathematicians, lawyers, and so on: in my own case, I have to wear a multitude of different hats, while recognizing someone who is a perfect fit for one of those hats when I meet that individual, and making the most of that opportunity to build a truly competent team. Engineers must be able to hold a meaningful, respectful conversation with any of these counterparts, not just discuss code or circuit design. I would advocate that they spend time reading, to maintain their vocabulary and stay abreast of the world around them.
Another one that I advocate is the ability to tap into a revolution that has occurred in parallel with the advent of Internet and cellular technologies, these past 30+ years: the explosion of open-source software tools. I am a committed proponent of open source, as a former contributor to them while previously employed at Kitware (a pioneer in this area, behind VTK, ITK, CMake, and myriad others). I see job ads in Indeed.com that specifically ask for the ability to work with these tools, since they save work and make it possible to produce a prototype in much less time than developing it completely in-house. This ability does not just presuppose the ability to program at a competent level, but other abilities: the ability to track bugs that not be in the calling program, but in the open-source software library itself, the willingness to get answers in the community of developers, the eye for details that extends to graphical processor units that result in accelerations an order of magnitude or better, and so on. These go way beyond writing a self-contained algorithm. Hardware designers may also have similar tools, based on broad standards, Arduino, and the prevalence of 3D printers that make it possible to physically replicate digital models.
Finally, a vital skill is the willingness and ability to keep learning, while embracing revolutions that take place at breathtaking pace. The latest one is the reliance on deep neural networks (DNNs) to synthesize algorithms that can learn and adapt to their data, with much faster performances than feasible with the previous algorithms that DNNs have replaced. The point to make here is not to embrace neural networks in a proximal sense, but that we cannot anticipate what will come next, downstream of DNNs. Graduates of 2021 have to be willing to keep their curiosity and work ethic enough to be responsive to the next wave of technologies, and embrace them for the opportunities that they represent.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Systems Designers?
Michel Audette Ph.D.: My take on this is what I've seen with my wife's work in industry, which suggests that the industrial landscape is going to be increasingly equipped for, and open to, remote work. I think that the implication for graduates is that they may need to be flexible about working within a geographically distributed team. If company deciders feel that someone is worth employing because of a unique skill set, then they would typically be more willing to hire that person even if unable to make it to work regularly, if that is feasible given the nature of the work; some work, such as hardware testing or industrial production, may not lend itself to remote contributions.
Nonetheless, for those areas that accommodate geographically distributed activity, such as software development, graduates can expect to interact with team members all over the US, possibly all over the world, if someone is deemed unique enough to hire despite living abroad. This places a high premium on the ability and willingness to work in a heterogeneous team, where not only will members look different, but also have myriad accents in their English, which will also impose a certain adaptability and tolerance to team members.
A related impact could also be that global hiring will make it easier for multi-national companies to hire a portion of their talent in countries where wages are lower and motivate US-based engineers to seek out graduate degrees in order to increase their competitiveness and employability at US salaries.
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Systems Designer?
Abby Guido: We've all heard the buzz about networking, and there is so much buzz because it works. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is both up to date and active. Connect with all of your past professors, classmates, and anyone and everyone you meet in a professional setting. I often tell students to get into the habit of searching for any classroom guests, or guest lecturers, to connect, thank them for their time, and build their network. Share content. Write articles, or reshare those you find interesting.
Every job I have ever received in my career has been through someone else I know. I share this with students to help them see the value in relationships. I always remember the students that took the time to write a handwritten thank-you note. And I think of them when I get an email asking if I know any students are looking for work.
Maria Jacob
ProfessorUniversity of Central Florida
Department of ECE
What experience really stands out on Electrical Systems Designer resumes?
Maria Jacob: Well, this is a too general question to answer. It totally depends on which job you are applying. Is the graduate going to the industry or research? Is the job for testing, designing, coding? What will stand out will depend on this.
However, if I really have to choose one, I always thought that one of the most important things you can learn is to work in a multidisciplinary group. Then, if before graduation a student can have an internship either in the industry or in research that will definitely stand out.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Systems Designers?
Eric Miller Ph.D.: I believe that there may well be some long term impact. Hopefully not in terms of health, but perhaps in terms of the way we work. It is possible, if not likely, that remote work and education will not be going away any time soon. How they evolve over the coming years depends on a variety of factors including the extent to which technology provides the "being there" feeling that is currently absent or at least rather attenuated when using products like Zoom, WebEx or Teams.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Systems Designers?
Joshua Pearce Ph.D: I think the virtualization of work and automation, in general, has been accelerated by the pandemic. This means that the competition for what most of us consider 'normal' jobs will become fiercer, and the skills a graduate needs to get those jobs are becoming more sophisticated. Graduates need to work at home, and a lot of it relies on the advanced use of computing (think AI, CV, etc., not merely staring at a screen for entertainment).
This also means graduates are competing against a global workforce - hungry people willing to work hard. Overall, we have also seen a massive shift in wealth in the last year, the undereducated are now in real trouble, and the hyper-educated and wealthy are better off than ever before. Graduates will want to make sure they stay in the latter group, bolstering their education and picking up advanced skills. This does not have to be a chore - one of the best ways to do this is to dive into an open-source project and maybe save/make a little money along the way.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Systems Designers?
Hai Ho Ph.D.: I believe the impact is short term, and once vaccines are effective and available, our graduates will have expected graduation and access to a responsive job market.
How do you envision technology impacting Electrical Systems Designers in the next 5 years?
Hai Ho Ph.D.: We are heading into the so-called fourth industrial revolution with blossoming technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, mixed reality, etc. Therefore, this field will experience tremendous growth and opportunities.
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Andre Knoesen Ph.D.: The gap year is an excellent period to expand soft skills (e.g., communication, critical thinking, creativity, writing, and exposure to other cultures) that are essential for new engineers. Basic engineering talents could be maintained by volunteering time in K-12 schools, such as assisting in distance learning efforts.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Systems Designers?
Andre Knoesen Ph.D.: As an educator of electric engineers, I am optimistic that the core skillsets we provide our students will continue to be essential for the immediate future, albeit that demands by industry maybe different. One positive aspect is that new engineers have gained practical experience working in virtual environments, a trend that had become commonplace in industry before the pandemic. Effectively operating such virtual collaborative team environments will be expected from new engineers.
Robert Saunders P.E.
Assistant Department HeadUniversity of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Electrical Engineering Department
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Systems Designer?
Robert Saunders P.E.: The job market for an electrical engineering student coming out of college is challenging right now. Many companies are still hiring electrical engineering students but, the students can't be as finicky about what jobs they are accepting. More than half of the students are starting their new jobs working remotely, which is a large shift from normal but the companies seem to be using this time to bring the new hires up to speed on policy, procedures, and industry regulations.
What Electrical Systems Designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Robert Saunders P.E.: Project management and/or leadership training, either at the university they graduated from, or a good online source. Either or both of these would demonstrate the proactive attitude of the student. And get involved in something; community service groups, design a project, anything that shows you are pushing forward professionally and personally, not just sitting at home.
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Systems Designer?
Fred Garber Ph.D.: I think the primary question, in the minds of those who are yet to graduate or are still searching, is in regard to the strength of the technical job market, especially the local job market. But you are in a position to definitively answer that question.
In you article, I would ask that you address the following:
Number of employers looking to fill and number of job offerings in the region (by engineering and computer science major) compared to last year and to the previous five years.
Any noticeable differences in job descriptions Zippia is receiving relative to work environment, benefits, starting salaries, etc.
Many of our soon-to-graduate students would be very interested in these quantitative and qualitative comparisons. Additionally, vast numbers of potential students would benefit from such information to guide their career choices.