LO
Chip design engineer — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians · Microsystems Engineers · Robotics Technicians · Mechatronics Engineers · Computer Systems Engineers/Architects · Robotics Engineers · Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
In the official classification#
Computer Hardware Engineers
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
integrated circuit design engineer
Fit with this page: same job
See it in ESCO ↗Electronics engineers
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Semi-conductor engineer
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 17-2061.00 (Computer Hardware Engineers). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Operations AnalysisImportant
- Systems AnalysisImportant
- Systems EvaluationImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
- InstructingImportant
Knowledge
- Computers and ElectronicsExtremely important
- Engineering and TechnologyExtremely important
- DesignVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- PhysicsImportant
Work activities
- Working with ComputersExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Updating and Using Relevant KnowledgeVery important
- Analyzing Data or InformationVery important
- Getting InformationVery important
- Thinking CreativelyVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
- Inductive ReasoningVery important
- Information OrderingVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- WritingVery important
- SpeakingVery important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 6 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 5 match at least one. 1 are not in O*NET's list for this occupation. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Architecture and specificationAnalyze design requirements for computer or electronics systems.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Electrical engineerDetermine operational criteria or specifications.covers part of this task · Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Electrical engineer
- Writing RTLDesign electronic or computer equipment or instrumentation.covers part of this task · Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Electrical engineer
- Verification and debugTest performance of electrical, electronic, mechanical, or integrated systems or equipment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Mechanical engineer
- Floorplanning, placement and timing closureDesign electronic or computer equipment or instrumentation.covers part of this task · Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Electrical engineerRecommend technical design or process changes to improve efficiency, quality, or performance.covers part of this task · Providing Consultation and Advice to Others · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Industrial engineer
- Analog and custom circuit designDesign electronic or computer equipment or instrumentation.covers part of this task · Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Electrical engineer
- Tool scripts and design flowsNone of the activities O*NET lists for this occupation covers this task.
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 0 backed by a verified event, 6 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.