💡 Why it matters: AI programs need huge amounts of computing power and electricity. Engineers who design faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient chips decide how far and how widely AI can spread.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs for computer hardware engineers are projected to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦2M – ₦5M
- Mid-career
- ₦6M – ₦15M
- Senior
- ₦15M – ₦40M
≈ ₦500k – ₦1.3M a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Closest National Careers Service profile: Electronics engineer, which lists semiconductors as a specialism. Typical starter to experienced salary. National Careers Service, 2026
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Computer hardware engineers. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles.. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank occupation: Computer hardware engineer. Hourly wage low, median and high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Design the circuits inside processors, such as GPUs (graphics processing units) and other AI chips
- Write code that describes how a chip should work, then test it in simulation before it is made
- Decide how a chip moves data around, because moving data often costs more energy than calculating
- Work with software teams so AI programs run well on the new chip
- Test the first physical chips and fix problems found in the lab
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Digital electronics
- Maths
- Programming
- Patience and attention to detail
- Teamwork
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Hands-on electronics and microcontroller projects
- Starting as an electronics or embedded systems engineer
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Engineering degree apprenticeships (study while you work)
- Starting as an electronics technician or test engineer and training up
🇺🇸 United States
- Internships at chip or electronics companies
- Starting as a hardware test or verification engineer
🇨🇦 Canada
- Co-op programs that alternate study terms with paid work terms
- Starting as an electronics technologist, then upgrading to an engineering degree
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Get excellent at maths and physics
- 2Tinker with electronics kits and microcontrollers such as Arduino, and learn basic programming
- 3Study electrical engineering, computer engineering or computer science
- 4Build a chip project, for example on a programmable chip board, and try an internship
- 5Join a chip team as a junior engineer and specialise in design, testing or architecture
⏰ A day in the life
A new AI chip comes back from the factory and runs slower than the simulation predicted. You trace the delay to how data waits in a memory buffer, change the design for the next version, and explain the trade-off to the software team.