How To Become A Customer Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a customer engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Fred Garber Ph.D.

The role of a customer engineer is crucial in developing and maintaining a company's best practices in customer service. Generally, their main job function is to provide technical support to address issues with products and services, particularly when it comes to the end-user experience.

The duties and responsibilities of a customer engineer revolve around diagnosing technical problems, coming up with solutions for these problems, and developing plans to address these issues once and for all. Furthermore, a customer engineer is also typically responsible for conducting tests, suggesting upgrades to management, and identifying other areas for improvement.

Most customer engineers have a degree in electrical engineering, business, or computer science. However, an ideal educational background for this role depends on what industry you're planning to enter. Aside from that, employers also require applicants to have six months to a year of related work experience, at the very least.

As a customer engineer, your earning potential can range between $63,000 to $111,000 per year. But if you want a more realistic value, the average salary is around $83,000 annually.

What general advice would you give to a customer engineer?

Fred Garber Ph.D.

Professor, Electrical Engineering, Wright State University

I think the primary question, in the minds of those who are yet to graduate or are still searching, is in regard to the strength of the technical job market, especially the local job market. But you are in a position to definitively answer that question.

In you article, I would ask that you address the following:
Number of employers looking to fill and number of job offerings in the region (by engineering and computer science major) compared to last year and to the previous five years.

Any noticeable differences in job descriptions Zippia is receiving relative to work environment, benefits, starting salaries, etc.

Many of our soon-to-graduate students would be very interested in these quantitative and qualitative comparisons. Additionally, vast numbers of potential students would benefit from such information to guide their career choices.

ScoreCustomer EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $101,212

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 14.46%

Black or African American 4.80%

Hispanic or Latino 11.11%

Unknown 4.70%

White 64.76%

Gender

female 9.59%

male 90.41%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.2

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a customer engineer

Explore customer engineer education requirements

Most common customer engineer degrees

Bachelor's

46.0 %

Associate

35.7 %

Master's

6.4 %

Start to develop specific customer engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	13.26%
Technical Problems	9.85%
Level Agreements	6.06%
Customer Satisfaction	5.89%
Software Support	4.97%

Complete relevant customer engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New customer engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a customer engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real customer engineer resumes.

Research customer engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead initial product demos to Sr. management.
Manage the installation and support of NT scanner workstations.
Manage UNIX systems security and troubleshot and resolve client problems.
Use SMS to manage network connect devices, inventory hardware/software, software distribution/installation, and perform diagnostic checks on PC's.

Prepare your customer engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your customer engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a customer engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable customer engineer resume templates

Build a professional customer engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your customer engineer resume.