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The differences between controls designers and staff 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 staff design engineer. Additionally, a staff design engineer has an average salary of $128,071, 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 staff design engineer are architecture, RF, and CAD.
| Controls Designer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $91,944 | $128,071 |
| Hourly rate | $44.20 | $61.57 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 79,729 | 154,963 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
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.
Staff design engineers are tasked to assess the efficiency of instruments, technologies, and equipment by collaborating with the engineering team to plan, design, and develop technologies efficiently. Their responsibilities include building and setting up, as wells as improving systems and procedures. They should possess strong attention to detail, good visual and spatial awareness, creativity, problem-solving, excellent verbal, written, and project management skills, and strong mathematical and IT skills to become efficient and effective staff design engineers.
Controls designers and staff design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Controls Designer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $91,944 | $128,071 |
| Salary range | Between $69,000 And $121,000 | Between $89,000 And $182,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Jose, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | California |
| Best paying company | Visteon | HBO |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a controls designer and a staff design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Controls Designer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | Northeastern University |
Here are the differences between controls designers' and staff design engineers' demographics:
| Controls Designer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 86.5% Female, 13.5% | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% |
| 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, 4.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 23.8% White, 57.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |