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The differences between customer engineers and controls designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a customer engineer and a controls designer. Additionally, a customer engineer has an average salary of $101,212, which is higher than the $91,944 average annual salary of a controls designer.
The top three skills for a customer engineer include customer service, technical problems and level agreements. The most important skills for a controls designer are PLC, control panels, and IDS.
| Customer Engineer | Controls Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $101,212 | $91,944 |
| Hourly rate | $48.66 | $44.20 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 44,709 | 79,729 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A customer engineer provides technical support to organizations having issues with their products or services. Duties and responsibilities may vary depending on the sector, but generally include diagnosing and troubleshooting technical problems with products, performing tests, upgrades and diagnostics to prevent delay or downtime caused by-product issues, and keeping updated reports outlining the problems and measures taken to resolve them. A customer engineer is also responsible for discussing service contracts and their benefits with clients.
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.
Customer engineers and controls designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Engineer | Controls Designer | |
| Average salary | $101,212 | $91,944 |
| Salary range | Between $77,000 And $131,000 | Between $69,000 And $121,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Jose, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | Visteon | |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Technology |
There are a few differences between a customer engineer and a controls designer in terms of educational background:
| Customer Engineer | Controls Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Carnegie Mellon University |
Here are the differences between customer engineers' and controls designers' demographics:
| Customer Engineer | Controls Designer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.4% Female, 9.6% | Male, 86.5% Female, 13.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.1% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |