You teach the next generation how computers work from the silicon up — circuits, architecture, embedded systems — while pursuing your own research at the field's edge. Teaching and discovery, side by side.
The role blends lecturing, advising students, running a lab, and chasing grants and publications. You move between classroom, research, and the endless administration of academia. Teaching and research pull against each other for your time, and much of the satisfaction comes from watching a student grasp something genuinely hard — or a result finally working.
What surprises people is how much is grant-writing and politics — funding shapes everything, and the path to tenure is long and pressured. Publish-or-perish is real, student demands are constant, and the field moves fast enough to keep you running. Industry often pays far more, which tugs at retention.
It fits someone deeply knowledgeable, self-driven, and energized by mentoring. If you want a steady schedule or hate the funding grind, academia can frustrate. But if you love advancing the field and shaping the engineers who'll build the future, the combination tends to be genuinely rewarding, year after year.
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Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Engineering roles →You teach the next generation how computers work from the silicon up — circuits, architecture, embedded systems — while pursuing your own research at the field's edge. Teaching and discovery, side by side.
Median pay for a Computer Engineering Professor is about $97K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $49K to $172K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Instructing, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Speaking, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a master's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 5.3% through 2034, with roughly 36,240 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Engineering Director, Software Project Manager, and Interactive Media Project Manager.
Turn your career record
into a springboard for growth.