Controls designer vs circuit design engineer

The differences between controls designers and circuit design 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 controls designer and a circuit design engineer. Additionally, a circuit design engineer has an average salary of $107,694, which is higher than the $91,944 average annual salary of a controls designer.

The top three skills for a controls designer include PLC, control panels and IDS. The most important skills for a circuit design engineer are circuit design, CMOS, and RF.

Controls designer vs circuit design engineer overview

	Controls Designer	Circuit Design Engineer
Yearly salary	$91,944	$107,694
Hourly rate	$44.20	$51.78
Growth rate	3%	3%
Number of jobs	79,729	70,906
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	6	6

What does a controls designer do?

Controls designers both design and draft systems of hydraulic, pneumatic, and electrical controls for equipment and machines. The designers make diagrams of the logic system for timing and sequence control. They illustrate and describe details for installation and maintenance, such as bearing lubrication and lubrication types. It is part of their job to review schematics with the representatives of customers to answer questions during robot system installation. Also, they may design energy conversion controls.

What does a circuit design engineer do?

A circuit design engineer specializes in designing and developing electrical components and circuits in devices and machinery. Among their responsibilities include identifying the needs of every project, developing strategies to attain optimal quality, developing diagrams and test structures, troubleshooting, and repairing issues. They must also perform regular maintenance checks on existing systems and perform upgrades and corrective measures as needed. Moreover, a circuit design engineer typically works in a team setting, which requires an active communication line for a smooth and efficient workflow.

Controls designer vs circuit design engineer salary

Controls designers and circuit design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Controls Designer	Circuit Design Engineer
Average salary	$91,944	$107,694
Salary range	Between $69,000 And $121,000	Between $84,000 And $137,000
Highest paying City	San Jose, CA	Federal Way, WA
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	Rhode Island
Best paying company	Visteon	Apple
Best paying industry	Technology	Technology

Differences between controls designer and circuit design engineer education

There are a few differences between a controls designer and a circuit design engineer in terms of educational background:

	Controls Designer	Circuit Design Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Northeastern University

Controls designer vs circuit design engineer demographics

Here are the differences between controls designers' and circuit design engineers' demographics:

	Controls Designer	Circuit Design Engineer
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 86.5% Female, 13.5%	Male, 74.4% Female, 25.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 17.7% White, 61.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.5% Asian, 19.9% White, 60.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between controls designer and circuit design engineer duties and responsibilities

Controls designer example responsibilities.

Establish communication links and prepare machines for bench-testing to attain UL certification.
Engineer, draft, modify PLC programs and HMI programs, create schematics, test software with customer to their satisfaction.
Create the simulation with SolidWorks.
Create and deploy disk images for latest SolidWorks releases as needed.
Develop applications for HVAC, semiconductor, industrial coatings, medical, and renewable and sustainable industries.
Lead designer assign to smaller projects at various plants dealing with instrumentation, PLS and DCS upgrades / modifications.

Circuit design engineer example responsibilities.

Lead cross-site LVR task force to get full set of schematics match to functional target RTL model.
Process orders for VPN long distance service and manage the VPN dial plan to ensure no duplications.
Manage client order request generate from sales, provisioning and designing data, voice and IP network services.
Size transistors to reduce RC time constant in dynamic flip-flops and to achieve equivalent performance in high frequency.
Lead a small design team to deliver a 90 nm LP 125 MHz medium-size Gigabit Ethernet PHY DSP.
Manage a team that include hardware engineers, software engineers, and verifications engineers to evaluate the McORE 200 microprocessor.

Controls designer vs circuit design engineer skills

Common controls designer skills

PLC, 12%
Control Panels, 6%
IDS, 6%
Auto CAD, 6%
I/O, 5%
UL, 4%

Common circuit design engineer skills

Circuit Design, 14%
CMOS, 6%
RF, 6%
Verilog, 5%
CAD, 4%
FPGA, 4%

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Controls Designer vs Circuit Design Engineer

Updated January 8, 2025

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