How To Become A Chief Design Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chief design engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Andrea Welker Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chief design engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $43.92 an hour? That's $91,363 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 6,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a chief design engineer?

Andrea Welker Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villanova University

Be open to new experiences. Find a good mentor. Become a valued employee. Always remember that you are designing something for someone.

ScoreChief Design EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.1

Avg. Salary $91,363

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 13.51%

Black or African American 3.39%

Hispanic or Latino 9.28%

Unknown 4.60%

White 69.11%

Gender

female 3.45%

male 96.55%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a chief design engineer

Explore chief design engineer education requirements

Most common chief design engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.9 %

Master's

15.1 %

Associate

12.4 %

Start to develop specific chief design engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Product Design	15.96%
Autocad	15.34%
Mechanical Design	10.46%
Design Engineering	9.52%
ISO	8.74%

Complete relevant chief design engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New chief design engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a chief design engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real chief design engineer resumes.

Research chief design engineer duties and responsibilities

Engineer, manage and implement configuration and installation of complex Ethernet network backbones.
Implement PLC connection for weighing systems and other serial port need to connect to other computerize control systems.
Deal with multiple agencies including UL, ETL/Intertek, NEC, TUV, and country specific testing agencies.
Work with a team of engineers to prepare architectural, mechanical, structural calculations, qualifying HVAC and steel designs.

Get chief design engineer experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a chief design engineer. The most common roles before becoming a chief design engineer include design engineer, project engineer team lead and engineering manager.

Prepare your chief design engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chief design engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a chief design engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable chief design engineer resume templates

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