Automotive designer vs senior engineer

The differences between automotive designers and senior engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both an automotive designer and a senior engineer. Additionally, a senior engineer has an average salary of $108,743, which is higher than the $69,782 average annual salary of an automotive designer.

The top three skills for an automotive designer include industrial design, sketch and powertrain. The most important skills for a senior engineer are java, python, and architecture.

Automotive designer vs senior engineer overview

	Automotive Designer	Senior Engineer
Yearly salary	$69,782	$108,743
Hourly rate	$33.55	$52.28
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	76,806	343,200
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	6	6

Automotive designer vs senior engineer salary

Automotive designers and senior engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Automotive Designer	Senior Engineer
Average salary	$69,782	$108,743
Salary range	Between $44,000 And $108,000	Between $82,000 And $144,000
Highest paying City	Belmont, CA	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	California
Best paying company	Meta	Roku
Best paying industry	Automotive	Start-up

Differences between automotive designer and senior engineer education

There are a few differences between an automotive designer and a senior engineer in terms of educational background:

	Automotive Designer	Senior Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Mechanical Engineering	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	Northwestern University	Michigan Technological University

Automotive designer vs senior engineer demographics

Here are the differences between automotive designers' and senior engineers' demographics:

	Automotive Designer	Senior Engineer
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 80.2% Female, 19.8%	Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 11.0% White, 70.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.1% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between automotive designer and senior engineer duties and responsibilities

Automotive designer example responsibilities.

Manage documentation of existing projects, perform ECN resolutions.
Design of brackets and torsion bar components are validated using FEA inSolidworks.
Designate as group training mentor during transition from CADAM to Unigraphics V9.
Complete several fully fillet and draft angle solid models on Unigraphics for direct manufacturing.
Perform mechanical engineering design for facilities including calculate building HVAC requirements to ensure adequate capacity of system air flow.
Release drawings and BOMs in PDM/Link Windchill.

Senior engineer example responsibilities.

Tune the TCP/IP, NFS and CIFS for 1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet to achieve performance goals.
Manage multiple releases of a global CRM initiative with on time and within budget deployment.
Implement and support migration tool used to automate promotion of code throughout all SDLC environments.
Manage & lead process analysis, design, & ERP implementation engagements at various client locations.
Design, lead design, or participate in design of five T/R modules for phase array antennas.
Create customized shell scripts to start-up and shut-down WebLogic admin and manage servers and integrate them with the OS.

Automotive designer vs senior engineer skills

Common automotive designer skills

Industrial Design, 24%
Sketch, 19%
Powertrain, 13%
FEA, 11%
Cost Reduction, 9%
Catia V5, 8%

Common senior engineer skills

Java, 10%
Python, 9%
Architecture, 7%
JavaScript, 4%
API, 4%
GIT, 3%