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The differences between chief engineers and operations engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a chief engineer and an operations engineer. Additionally, a chief engineer has an average salary of $108,050, which is higher than the $91,522 average annual salary of an operations engineer.
The top three skills for a chief engineer include HVAC, plumbing and customer service. The most important skills for an operations engineer are python, cloud, and AWS.
| Chief Engineer | Operations Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $108,050 | $91,522 |
| Hourly rate | $51.95 | $44.00 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 88,473 | 155,188 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes. A chief engineer must have excellent knowledge of the engineering disciplines and exemplary leadership skills to handle the team's performance towards the company's objectives.
An operations engineer is an individual who is responsible for ensuring that the operations of a company are working properly in industries such as manufacturing or shipping. Operations engineers are required to handle repairs or upgrades to the company's machinery and coordinate with department heads to assist in fine-tuning their operations system. When they have upgraded their system, operations engineers should conduct training with managers as well as employees and other workers. They are also required to examine machinery for defects and communicate maintenance schedules with department heads.
Chief engineers and operations engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Chief Engineer | Operations Engineer | |
| Average salary | $108,050 | $91,522 |
| Salary range | Between $65,000 And $177,000 | Between $63,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | Palo Alto, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | BGC Partners | Apple |
| Best paying industry | Transportation | Technology |
There are a few differences between a chief engineer and an operations engineer in terms of educational background:
| Chief Engineer | Operations Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between chief engineers' and operations engineers' demographics:
| Chief Engineer | Operations Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% | Male, 89.9% Female, 10.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 10.2% White, 71.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 72.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |