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The differences between chief engineers and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a chief engineer has an average salary of $108,050, which is higher than the $91,578 average annual salary of a project manager.
The top three skills for a chief engineer include HVAC, plumbing and customer service. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.
| Chief Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $108,050 | $91,578 |
| Hourly rate | $51.95 | $44.03 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 88,473 | 167,116 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.17 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 41 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 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.
Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.
Chief engineers and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Chief Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Average salary | $108,050 | $91,578 |
| Salary range | Between $65,000 And $177,000 | Between $64,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | Palo Alto, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | BGC Partners | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Transportation | Technology |
There are a few differences between a chief engineer and a project manager in terms of educational background:
| Chief Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between chief engineers' and project managers' demographics:
| Chief Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Average age | 41 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% | Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1% |
| 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, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 10% |