---
title: "Lithography Engineer"
description: "Runs and improves the photolithography step in chipmaking, using scanners that print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers with light."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/lithography-engineer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Lithography Engineer

**Category:** Architecture and Engineering · **SOC code:** 17-2199 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 17-2199.07

Runs and improves the photolithography step in chipmaking, using scanners that print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers with light.

Also advertised as: Photolithography Engineer; Photolithography Process Engineer; Lithography Process Engineer; EUV Lithography Engineer; Litho Engineer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $122,930 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $59.10/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $66,810 to $189,950, with the middle half between $90,970 and $158,090
- **Total US employment:** 154,070
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 8,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 26/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 154,070 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $66,810 |
| 25th | $90,970 |
| 50th (median) | $122,930 |
| 75th | $158,090 |
| 90th | $189,950 |
| Mean (average) | $125,330 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NM | $162,070 | $175,758 | 2,190 |
| AL | $152,550 | $171,746 | 3,460 |
| DC | $151,920 | $138,234 | 3,560 |
| VA | $148,160 | $146,542 | 5,060 |
| AK | $142,390 | $139,108 | 200 |
| WA | $134,570 | $125,751 | 3,580 |
| CO | $132,590 | $128,663 | 2,540 |
| NJ | $132,450 | $121,732 | 4,540 |
| MA | $131,260 | $124,115 | 2,850 |
| ID | $130,970 | $137,150 | 560 |
| CA | $130,850 | $118,181 | 28,610 |
| MD | $129,770 | $123,639 | 7,340 |
| NH | $128,130 | $123,007 | 610 |
| VT | $126,550 | $129,188 | 390 |
| CT | $124,110 | $119,786 | 2,430 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/lithography-engineer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/lithography-engineer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 166,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 173,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 6,200 jobs, or +3.7%. About as fast as average: 3.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 8,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 52.4% |
| Master's Degree | 38.1% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 4.8% |
| Doctoral Degree | 4.8% |

## What the work involves

- Control focus, dose and overlay on lithography scanners
- Develop exposure and resist process recipes
- Analyze critical dimension and overlay metrology data
- Troubleshoot patterning defects
- Qualify new masks, resists and scanner upgrades
- Work with equipment engineers on scanner performance
- Support transfer of new chip designs into production

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Technology Design — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.92 |
| R — Realistic | 5.90 |
| C — Conventional | 4.21 |
| A — Artistic | 2.80 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.70 |
| S — Social | 1.39 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTP | 87.4 |
| INTJ | 86.2 |
| ISTJ | 85.2 |
| INTP | 74.4 |
| ISFJ | 57.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTP, INTJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Photonics Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/photonics-engineer) — median $122,930
- [Photonics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/photonics-technician) — median $78,350
- [Microsystems Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/microsystems-engineer) — median $122,930
- [Electronics Engineer, Except Computer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electronics-engineer) — median $130,220
- [Computer Hardware Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-hardware-engineer) — median $161,740
- [Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $78,190
- [Mechatronics Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechatronics-engineer) — median $122,930
- [Nanosystems Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nanosystems-engineer) — median $122,930
- [Electrical Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-engineer) — median $120,630
- [Radio Frequency Identification Device Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radio-frequency-identification-device-specialist) — median $130,220

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/lithography-engineer