There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior embedded engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.54 an hour? That's $121,757 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does a Senior Embedded Engineer Do

There are certain skills that many senior embedded engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.

Learn more about what a Senior Embedded Engineer does

How To Become a Senior Embedded Engineer

If you're interested in becoming a senior embedded engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 70.5% of senior embedded engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 26.4% of senior embedded engineers have master's degrees. Even though most senior embedded engineers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Senior Embedded Engineer

Senior Embedded Engineer Career Paths

Average Salary for a Senior Embedded Engineer

Senior Embedded Engineers in America make an average salary of $121,757 per year or $59 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $159,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $93,000 per year.
Average Senior Embedded Engineer Salary
$121,757 Yearly
$58.54 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Senior Embedded Engineer

The role of a senior embedded engineer includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general senior embedded engineer responsibilities:

  • Responsible for all aspects of firmware development for new, innovative product designs using embedded microprocessors. Scope of responsibilities will cover architectural design, technical specifications, reusable modular designs, cost-effective engineering designs, code development, testing to robust environments, production implementation
  • Reviews system-level requirements, and process them into software requirements specifications designs components of an embedded system based on software requirements integrates applications using components developed in-house
  • Responsible for assuring that our security solutions are successfully integrated into the infotainment head unit product, on time with high quality to the customer provides direction to both on-shore

There are several types of senior embedded engineer, including:

Systems Engineer

Role:

If you're looking for a job that has a lot of job opportunities tied to it, look no further. Systems engineers are in full demand from all sorts of companies across multiple industries. Everyone needs an "I.T." person in their midst because it's no secret that very few actually know how to use technology.

Sure, most people may refer to you as the I.T. person, but your job is much more complicated than that. Of course, the majority of your time will be spent managing the I.T. services and solving any issues that present themselves, but you will have days that you'll have to recover important emails or divert a disaster.

The only thing stopping you from becoming a systems engineer is a bachelor's degree. Once you've got that under your belt, you'll be on your way to becoming a systems engineer. A really important aspect of being a systems engineer is having the communication skills necessary. The hardest part of your job will be "dumbing" down technology terms so that people can understand what's going on with the I.T. system. Once you get through that, the rest of your job will be easy peasy.

  • Average Salary: $82,834
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Systems Engineer Staff

Role:

Systems engineers are relevant to any organization that relies on IT systems. Their job is to design, implement, support, and manage IT systems. The role may also extend to services like emails, file security, and data storage. Systems engineer staff work in an IT department under a systems engineering coordinator.

The daily activities of a systems engineer may include resolving complaints, fixing bugs, and upgrading software systems. They may also be involved in developing and deploying new designs and monitoring their performance. Some systems engineer staff may also teach employees how to use specific software.

In most organizations, systems engineer staff are the go-to for everything IT-related. That may also include maintaining network connections, managing LAN services, and performing routine systems and software audits.

To become a systems engineer staff, applicants need a bachelor's degree in computer engineering; although, some employers may settle for a diploma and extensive experience.

  • Average Salary: $129,611
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Embedded Systems Engineer

Role:

We all know computers run on a system composed of tiny processing chips. These processing chips make up the processing unit that enables computers to perform their function. Sometimes, it is awe-inspiring to realize how much these small chips can accomplish in seconds. They compose a system so efficient that it can even think faster than humans at times. Did you know that these systems are often called embedded systems? And one person who handles that is the embedded systems engineer. Embedded systems engineers design these systems.

They develop the software involved in the systems and ensure that the desired results are produced. Aside from that, embedded systems engineers also carry out product testing to check if the system is working. Once it is up and running, embedded systems engineers stand by to do routine maintenance checks and fix any problems that may occur.

If you are an engineer who loves technology and building things, this is a good specialization for you. You need to have computing skills and analytical skills, as well as the patience to create in order to succeed.

  • Average Salary: $91,959
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Senior Embedded Engineer Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active senior embedded engineer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where senior embedded engineers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Senior Embedded Engineer Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California4,783$151,495
2Virginia1,849$126,776
3Texas1,479$119,829
4Maryland1,355$105,625
5Florida1,034$118,132
6Massachusetts1,015$121,788
7Washington1,006$152,111
8Colorado987$102,753
9New York942$128,117
10Illinois725$116,032
11Georgia593$97,479
12North Carolina582$122,364
13Pennsylvania558$113,646
14Michigan539$99,840
15Arizona512$109,409
16Minnesota502$100,100
17New Jersey457$122,106
18Ohio443$110,686
19Oregon438$119,063
20Alabama393$109,713
21Indiana322$90,272
22Utah290$119,495
23Missouri278$87,196
24Wisconsin252$103,442
25Connecticut181$97,402
26Iowa171$106,579
27Tennessee171$95,889
28South Carolina163$106,438
29New Hampshire147$104,285
30Nebraska134$90,523
31Kansas126$92,663
32New Mexico120$114,844
33Delaware117$104,452
34Louisiana115$95,066
35Kentucky115$88,130
36Nevada104$126,386
37Oklahoma100$90,736
38Arkansas99$100,000
39Idaho97$125,187
40Rhode Island87$97,652
41Hawaii67$110,141
42West Virginia67$95,797
43Maine61$116,509
44Mississippi61$91,774
45Vermont57$119,220
46Montana56$109,777
47North Dakota56$101,107
48Alaska51$121,104
49Wyoming43$109,725
50South Dakota39$99,633

Senior Embedded Engineer Education

Senior Embedded Engineer Majors

Senior Embedded Engineer Degrees

Bachelors

70.5 %

Masters

26.4 %

Certificate

0.8 %

Top Colleges for Senior Embedded Engineers

1. Northeastern University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,522

Enrollment

13,760

2. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

3. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,992

Enrollment

33,495

4. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Pomona, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,353

Enrollment

24,841

5. Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Tallahassee, FL • Private

In-State Tuition

$5,785

Enrollment

7,711

6. Minnesota State University - Mankato

Mankato, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,184

Enrollment

11,675

7. Milwaukee School of Engineering

Milwaukee, WI • Private

In-State Tuition

$40,749

Enrollment

2,582

8. Texas A&M University

College Station, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,870

Enrollment

53,194

9. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$3,926

Enrollment

9,835

10. University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$19,080

Enrollment

19,127

Top Skills For a Senior Embedded Engineer

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.3% of senior embedded engineers listed python on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Embedded Engineer Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Senior Embedded Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Senior Embedded Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Senior Embedded Engineer diversity

Senior Embedded Engineer Gender Distribution

Male
Male
89%
Female
Female
11%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among senior embedded engineers, 11.4% of them are women, while 88.6% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among senior embedded engineers is White, which makes up 52.3% of all senior embedded engineers.

  • The most common foreign language among senior embedded engineers is Russian at 20.0%.

Online Courses For Senior Embedded Engineer That You May Like

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1. Introduction to Embedded Systems Software and Development Environments

coursera

Welcome to the Introduction to Embedded Systems Software and Development Environments. This course is focused on giving you real world coding experience and hands on project work with ARM based Microcontrollers. You will learn how to implement software configuration management and develop embedded software applications. Course assignments include creating a build system using the GNU Toolchain GCC, using Git version control, and developing software in Linux on a Virtual Machine. The course...

2. Embedded Software and Hardware Architecture

coursera

Embedded Software and Hardware Architecture is a first dive into understanding embedded architectures and writing software to manipulate this hardware. You will gain experience writing low-level firmware to directly interface hardware with highly efficient, readable and portable design practices. We will now transition from the Host Linux Machine where we built and ran code in a simulated environment to an Integrated Development Environment where you will build and install code directly on your...

3. Mastering Microcontroller and Embedded Driver Development

udemy
4.6
(7,830)

(MCU1) Learn bare metal driver development using Embedded C: Writing drivers for STM32 GPIO, I2C, SPI, USART from scratch...

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Best States For a Senior Embedded Engineer

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior embedded engineer. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, New York, and Virginia. Senior embedded engineers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $152,111. Whereas in California and New York, they would average $151,495 and $128,117, respectively. While senior embedded engineers would only make an average of $126,776 in Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Washington

Total Senior Embedded Engineer Jobs: 1,006
Highest 10% Earn:
$201,000
Location Quotient:
1.61

2. California

Total Senior Embedded Engineer Jobs: 4,783
Highest 10% Earn:
$201,000
Location Quotient:
1.91

3. Virginia

Total Senior Embedded Engineer Jobs: 1,849
Highest 10% Earn:
$163,000
Location Quotient:
2.29
Full List Of Best States For Senior Embedded Engineers

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Top Senior Embedded Engineer Employers

Most Common Employers For Senior Embedded Engineer

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Rivian$147,716$71.0213
2GoPro$141,312$67.944
3CyberCoders$135,670$65.2315
4NIO$134,958$64.884
5Motion Recruitment$127,493$61.299
6Jobot$123,626$59.444
7Honeywell$122,051$58.684
8Sony Electronics$121,812$58.568
9Hatco$121,166$58.255
10Experian$120,561$57.965