How To Become A Principal Hardware Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a principal hardware engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Aaron Stillmaker Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a principal hardware engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $63.33 an hour? That's $131,734 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a principal hardware engineer?

Aaron Stillmaker Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the LCOE Honors Program, California State University - Fresno

I highly encourage students starting to look for jobs to get their resume polished both by talking with a trusted professor and taking advantage of career centers at their university. I always suggest that students highlight fascinating projects on their resumes that highlight their knowledge base without having to list skills, and they need to be ready to talk intelligibly about those projects. I would make sure to prepare for interviews by brushing up on design course material that are taught in the courses most closely pertaining to the specialty they are interviewing for. I also suggest they contact professors they have a good relationship with to ask them to reach out to their contacts in the field, as many professors have connections in the industry and are happy to help their good students attain good jobs.

ScorePrincipal Hardware EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.4

Avg. Salary $131,734

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.8

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 29.92%

Black or African American 5.03%

Hispanic or Latino 10.19%

Unknown 2.88%

White 51.54%

Gender

female 4.98%

male 95.02%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a principal hardware engineer

Explore principal hardware engineer education requirements

Most common principal hardware engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.8 %

Master's

20.3 %

Associate

6.6 %

Start to develop specific principal hardware engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
RF	11.62%
Architecture	9.50%
C++	5.01%
FPGA	4.83%
GPS	3.97%

Complete relevant principal hardware engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New principal hardware engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a principal hardware engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real principal hardware engineer resumes.

Research principal hardware engineer duties and responsibilities

Design activity lead to performing PCB layout using an outside vendor and then debugging the initial prototypes.
Supervise and manage compliance testing and debugging of emissions.
Generate synthesis reports and automate simulation using Perl scripts.
Train senior and principal engineers in signal integrity, microwave, and RF design methodology.

Get principal hardware engineer experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a principal hardware engineer. The most common roles before becoming a principal hardware engineer include senior hardware engineer, hardware engineer team lead and member, technical staff.

Prepare your principal hardware engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your principal hardware engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a principal hardware engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable principal hardware engineer resume templates

Build a professional principal hardware engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your principal hardware engineer resume.

Apply for principal hardware engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a principal hardware engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average principal hardware engineer salary

The average principal hardware engineer salary in the United States is $131,734 per year or $63 per hour. Principal hardware engineer salaries range between $98,000 and $176,000 per year.

Average principal hardware engineer salary

$131,734 Yearly

$63.33 hourly

How do principal hardware engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Principal hardware engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Cons

Can't think of anything

Pros

Repairing rebuilding and diagnosising laptop and desktop computers. Along with trouble shooting and giving sound advice

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

Hardware Design Engineer's are few intellectuals in a company who has exposure to all the aspects of product life cycle. It needs versatile knowledge of all most of the things. I feel passionate dealing with electronics components and analyzing them. It is a flexible job. It is a Real time job.

Cons

At times software development team questions on hardware design without looking the code running the stuff irritates Must have some knowledge of coding as well

What is a principal hardware engineer and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a principal hardware engineer?

Principal hardware engineer career paths

Key steps to become a principal hardware engineer

Explore principal hardware engineer education requirements

Most common principal hardware engineer degrees

Start to develop specific principal hardware engineer skills

Complete relevant principal hardware engineer training and internships

Research principal hardware engineer duties and responsibilities

Get principal hardware engineer experience

Prepare your principal hardware engineer resume

Choose from 10+ customizable principal hardware engineer resume templates

Apply for principal hardware engineer jobs

How did you land your first principal hardware engineer job

Average principal hardware engineer salary

How do principal hardware engineers rate their job?

Principal hardware engineer reviews