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The differences between chief engineers and vice presidents of engineering can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a chief engineer, becoming a vice president of engineering takes usually requires More than 10 years. Additionally, a vice president of engineering has an average salary of $150,651, which is higher than the $108,050 average annual salary of a chief engineer.
The top three skills for a chief engineer include HVAC, plumbing and customer service. The most important skills for a vice president of engineering are architecture, cloud, and infrastructure.
| Chief Engineer | Vice President Of Engineering | |
| Yearly salary | $108,050 | $150,651 |
| Hourly rate | $51.95 | $72.43 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 88,473 | 92,133 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 69% |
| Average age | 41 | 48 |
| 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.
A Vice President Of Engineering manages all aspects of the company's engineering product development activities. They are responsible for strategic planning, production designing, quality assurance, and problem resolution.
Chief engineers and vice presidents of engineering have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Chief Engineer | Vice President Of Engineering | |
| Average salary | $108,050 | $150,651 |
| Salary range | Between $65,000 And $177,000 | Between $97,000 And $233,000 |
| Highest paying City | Palo Alto, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | BGC Partners | |
| Best paying industry | Transportation | Technology |
There are a few differences between a chief engineer and a vice president of engineering in terms of educational background:
| Chief Engineer | Vice President Of Engineering | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 69% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor |
Here are the differences between chief engineers' and vice presidents of engineering' demographics:
| Chief Engineer | Vice President Of Engineering | |
| Average age | 41 | 48 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% | Male, 93.0% Female, 7.0% |
| 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, 3.1% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 13.6% White, 69.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 9% |