engineering.

Major new investments are creating new opportunities for both engineers and the organizations that employ them — but some key obstacles may prevent engineering employers from capitalizing on them. From ways to overcome talent scarcity to developing newly in-demand skills and beyond, here's what engineering employers need to know in order to succeed in 2023 and beyond — plus engineering salaries for dozens of today's hottest engineering jobs.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created a once-in-a-generation funding opportunity for engineering employers, with the goal of spurring development of bridges, tunnels, roads and more. As funds from the program become available, new opportunities will be created for engineers. However, with inflation eating into how much employers can accomplish with those funds and the shortage of engineering talent on the market, IIJA funding is only one piece of the puzzle.

Supply chain shortages have thrown an additional wrench into many employers’ plans. While funding for new projects is there thanks to the IIJA, the same can’t be said of the materials needed to actually complete them. On top that, the shortage of engineering talent persists. While employers can somewhat mitigate materials shortages by getting creative with blueprints and designs, they have a lot less leeway when it comes to finding experienced engineers in a competitive market. Sixty percent of construction firms have already reported labor-related project delays — an unsustainable figure that can’t be left unaddressed in 2023. Better talent planning will be needed this year to forecast human capital needs farther in advance than what was perhaps previously the norm. Better forecasting will give employers more generous timelines in which to find talent to complete projects.

The CHIPS Act, a combined public-private sector investment of $50 billion over the next five years, was drafted to spur domestic manufacturing of semiconductors and to maintain competitiveness in other industries of the future. Many companies are already announcing new facilities for chip development and manufacturing: Industry heavyweights like Intel and Samsung have announced multibillion-dollar plans to invest in U.S. semiconductor production. Micron Technology, for its part, is making a massive $40 billion investment in memory-chip manufacturing — a move that could single-handedly raise America’s market share from less than two percent to as much as 10 percent on its own.

With so much momentum behind domestic growth, businesses can expect an influx of hiring needs to arise in the semiconductor space. Employers with the capabilities to enter the semiconductor business as well will be well positioned in a growing U.S. market — as long as they can find enough engineering talent to support new roles.

So what exactly are those key roles? Due to new opportunities provided by the CHIPS Act, specialized skills involving field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) — microchips used in electronic devices — will be in demand. While FPGA/ASIC skills are developed later on the job (not in school), the pipeline has proven to be problematic: The amount of electrical engineering graduates has been steadily declining, making talent with the skill sets needed for FPGA/ASIC design hard to find.

In order to get the FPGA/ASIC talent they need in 2023, employers should look to revamp their skilling efforts to take advantage of the great talent that’s either currently employed or a known quantity in the pipeline. However, it will be important to think carefully about the right kind of candidates to skill in these cases. While a company’s software engineers, for example, may seem like good candidates, they often lack digital design backgrounds which can make the transition more difficult to achieve. Instead, employers should focus on upskilling early-career professionals to steer them toward verification career paths or engage talent development programs to identify talent before they enter the market.

FPGA and ASIC skill sets won’t be the only ones in demand, however. Investments related to both the CHIPS Act and IIJA will create demand for talent across a variety of sectors. The aircraft electrification market, for example, is estimated to grow 14 percent, reaching $20 billion annually by 2030. Replacing hydraulic systems with electric ones will improve efficiency and lower maintenance costs. On the ground, the U.S. is seeing an uptick in interest from Americans when it comes to buying electric vehicles (EVs). The IIJA has set about creating more EV charging stations to remediate one of consumers’ biggest EV-related complaints. Meanwhile, efforts to transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternatives could create 14 million new jobs related to clean energy, transition roughly five million workers from the fossil fuels industries and create demand for new skills and training for an estimated 30 million employees. In other words, expect the engineering talent market to be impacted in manufacturing, electrical, civil, project management and more.

As competition heats up, employers will need to ensure their salary levels remain in line with the current market. Further, they’ll need to increase their capacity to provide best-in-class perks and benefits that support flexibility and remote work and aid employees in achieving a better work-life balance.

Let's review the national averages for salaries across the country.

The variance percentages can be applied to the national averages to calculate the salaries in your area.