How To Become An Embedded Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is an embedded engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Edoardo Sarda Ph.D.

If you have ever thought that a system software was just inside your computer, think again. Nowadays, other machines have software specialized for their particular kind of hardware, including cars, robot vacuums, and more. This is called embedded software, and a person who helps this run is an embedded engineer.

As an embedded engineer, you would develop, maintain and repair embedded software and make sure that it responds to interactions from the hardware. Like with all computer-oriented jobs, you would need to know programming languages such as C++; however, you would also need to master your knowledge of firmware.

Nowadays, you can find a computer pretty much anywhere you turn. Behind every adorable video of a pet riding a Roomba or a smart appliance, there is the hard work of an embedded engineer.

What general advice would you give to an Embedded Engineer?

Edoardo Sarda Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering, Lake Superior State University

Flexibility has become a key asset for new graduates, due to the current COVID19 pandemic. Fortunately, engineers are still in high demand. Even fresh graduates may need to seek opportunities and accept positions working in areas that were not exactly what they had in mind while in college. Besides, the pandemic has created a reality where specific industries are struggling while others are booming. That will undoubtedly impact the demand for new engineers. Lastly, since the United States took a non-uniform approach to fight the pandemic, where every state is independently deciding how to reopen, leading to some states being stricter than others, in addition to new epicenters forming in different areas of the country at different times, new grads may not necessarily end up in the geographical location they may have originally planned.

ScoreEmbedded EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $95,419

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.7

Growth Rate 21%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 31.65%

Black or African American 4.36%

Hispanic or Latino 8.09%

Unknown 4.78%

White 50.95%

Gender

female 13.68%

male 86.32%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress Level

4.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.8

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an embedded engineer

Explore embedded engineer education requirements

Most common embedded engineer degrees

Bachelor's

75.4 %

Master's

16.8 %

Associate

4.6 %

Start to develop specific embedded engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Python	11.26%
C	7.04%
C++	7.04%
Firmware	6.66%
Software Development	6.34%

Complete relevant embedded engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New embedded 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 an embedded engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real embedded engineer resumes.

Research embedded engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Experience implementing and debugging low-level drivers and communication protocols for hardware serial interfaces like SPI, I2C and RS232.
Design and develop real time applications on QNX RTOS.
Make use of Bluetooth to communicate with app in IOS.

Prepare your embedded engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your embedded 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 an embedded 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 Embedded Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Embedded 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 Embedded Engineer resume.

Apply for embedded engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an embedded 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

How do embedded engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

Embedded Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2023

Pros

Developing new technologies and working with both hardware and software

Cons

Unrealistic demands from management and the job markets ups and downs

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020