Semiconductor Jobs in India: The drive to build its own semiconductor ecosystem in the country is now going to bring a big change on the employment front. Experts believe that more than one lakh new jobs will be created in the next three years due to the rapid growth of this sector. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates, the semiconductor workforce in the country is currently around 25,000. It is expected to increase four times in the next three years. At the same time, separate research by staffing firm CIEL HR Services shows that over the next 18 months alone, companies in the sector could provide around 67,500 new jobs. Based on data from the last 12 months through November 2026, the study tracked nearly 45,000 openings from more than 150 semiconductor companies.
Six times more packages than the IT sector, experts are being called from abroad
Not only are the jobs growing in the semiconductor sector, but the salary graph is also very high. According to BCG partner and managing director Ankush Wadhera, experts in this industry can earn four to six times more than IT services workers with similar experience. This difference is most visible in mid to senior level positions. It includes roles like Process Engineer, Fab Engineer, Chip Design Engineer, System Engineer, Product Architect.
Vadhera says that according to the speed with which the demand in the market is increasing, the right talent is not being found for the job. Entry-level or mid-level employees can be trained easily, but there is a severe dearth of senior-level talent in the country. Many companies are now looking outside India to fill this gap. America and South-East Asia are the most preferred destinations for bringing in senior experts. A large portion of this global talent pool consists of people of Indian origin settled abroad.
As the industry has moved on with chip design, the focus is now on these new roles
According to a study by CIEL HR Services, around 1,50,000 professionals are currently working in India’s semiconductor talent pool. These people are handling work like chip design, verification, engineering, testing and product development. About 43 percent of this workforce has more than 10 years of experience, says Aditya Narayan Mishra, the firm’s CEO. At the same time, almost three-quarters of professionals have more than five years of experience.
Mishra explains that for years India’s semiconductor workforce was based almost entirely on chip design. But now the recruitment trend is changing. Specialists in high-value roles are in demand due to domestic fabrication and packaging units setting up in the country. Companies are now increasingly looking for people in process engineering, equipment maintenance, yield management, reliability engineering and advanced packaging. Until recently, the share of these jobs in the total recruitment was negligible.
Qualcomm is offering maximum opportunities, know which skills are in high demand
A recent study shows that Qualcomm currently leads the market in terms of new hires. After this comes the number of big companies like AMD, Nvidia, Synopsys, Applied Materials, Infineon, Cadence and Micron.
However, lack of talent is a major challenge for companies. The situation is that for every 100 engineers with an understanding of microarchitecture, there are 135 vacancies in the market. To meet their needs, companies are not only hiring people from other competing companies, but are also picking up talent from colleges and IT services companies.
The skills most in demand today include physical design, timing closure, digital design, RTL (register transfer level) coding and design verification. In addition, experts in microarchitecture, emulation, formal verification, embedded systems and bringing silicon are also in high demand. Talking about programming languages, companies are hiring people who know Python, C++, Verilog and SystemVerilog.
