Hardware Engineering Careers in Japan: What 280 Job Postings Ask For
Every figure on this page summarizes job postings tracked on AirTA. It describes what employers asked for in their postings, in aggregate, and is shown the same way to every reader. It is not a description of any individual’s career or prospects.
- 280
- 55
- 36%
- 35%
What Gets You In
1-2 years of experience
9
3-4 years of experience
34
5-9 years of experience
42
10+ years of experience
17
7%
25% day-to-day or above
Semiconductor
40%
Electrical Design
29%
Embedded Systems
22%
Project Management
20%
CAD
13%
Mechanical Design
9%
Automotive
8%
Production Engineering
8%
280 postings
Levels by Experience
1–4 years
7%
15% day-to-day or above
43 postings
5+ years
7%
46% day-to-day or above
Semiconductor 41% (+15)
PowerPoint 14% (+14)
Excel 12% (+12)
59 postings
Stated Pay
Median ¥8,000,000 · 97 postings state pay
¥7,000,000
25th to 75th percentile of stated salaries
¥9,500,000
Working Conditions
- 125 days
47 postings
- 20 h
35 postings
- 34%
Fully remote
3
Hybrid
59
On-site
14
280 postings
What Comes Next
People management
6
Specialist track
5
Project management
4
Employers naming each step, of 6 that name one
Levels by Job Title
Specialist track
Entry / new graduate
4
Senior
18
Principal
7
Management track
Team lead
23
Manager
11
Director
1
Individual-contributor level
29 postings from 10 employers
Every figure below summarizes job postings tracked on AirTA at this level. It describes what employers asked for in their postings, not any individual.
These figures summarize other postings tracked on AirTA, not this role.
Hardware Engineering · individual-contributor level
English · 23 postings
Daily English
4%
Some English
35%
No English stated
61%
Japanese · 23 postings
Native/Fluent (Native or JLPT N1)
61%
Professional Working Proficiency (JLPT N2)
22%
Limited Working Proficiency (JLPT N3)
4%
No level stated
13%
5 years median (middle half 5 to 8)
over 14 postings stating a threshold
7% of postings (2)
Team-lead level
23 postings from 7 employers
Every figure below summarizes job postings tracked on AirTA at this level. It describes what employers asked for in their postings, not any individual.
These figures summarize other postings tracked on AirTA, not this role.
Hardware Engineering · team-lead level
English · 20 postings
Daily English
40%
Some English
25%
No English stated
35%
Japanese · 22 postings
Native/Fluent (Native or JLPT N1)
59%
Professional Working Proficiency (JLPT N2)
23%
Limited Working Proficiency (JLPT N3)
14%
No level stated
5%
Not enough postings state this
9% of postings (2)
Automotive 26% (+23 pts over the level below)
Electrical Design 39% (+22 pts over the level below)
terms counted over 23 postings at this level
2 openings are titled as a candidate for this level
Who Is Hiring
All Hardware Engineering openings
280 postings from 55 employers, as of 2026-09-22
Related Functions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Hardware Engineering career ladder?
A level-by-level summary of what live Hardware Engineering job postings tracked on AirTA ask for. Levels come from job titles (manager, director, senior and so on) and, separately, from the years of experience a posting states. Every figure is a statistic over those postings, refreshed daily.
Where do the numbers come from?
From the job postings AirTA collects from employer career sites and applicant tracking systems. Years of experience, certifications and management experience are read from the posting text; the level is read from the title; pay is the salary the employer stated on the posting. Nothing is estimated for an individual.
Why is there no pay figure at some levels?
A pay band publishes only when at least 30 postings at that level state a salary, and a median only from 10. Senior-level pay is rarely published in Japan, so the honest answer at some levels is no figure rather than a figure borrowed from another level.
What does "candidate for" mean?
Some postings are titled 「マネージャー候補」 or "Manager Candidate": the employer states in the title that the opening is for someone who will grow into that level. The ladder counts those titles as the employer wrote them. It does not predict anyone’s promotion.
Role information is sourced from companies' public careers pages. Listed companies are not affiliated with AirTA. Is this your company? Claim your listing or request removal.