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The differences between customer engineers and cost 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 customer engineer and a cost engineer. Additionally, a customer engineer has an average salary of $101,212, which is higher than the $87,901 average annual salary of a cost engineer.
The top three skills for a customer engineer include customer service, technical problems and level agreements. The most important skills for a cost engineer are project management, cost analysis, and construction management.
| Customer Engineer | Cost Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $101,212 | $87,901 |
| Hourly rate | $48.66 | $42.26 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 44,709 | 65,278 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| 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.
A cost engineer is responsible for projecting cost and expenses reports for the production process, identify and mitigate risks, and develop strategic techniques to reduce the excessive financial loss for project buildings. Cost engineers conduct data and statistical analysis to measure time deliverables and quality checks to ensure profitability and adherence to business objectives. They research and negotiate materials from trusted suppliers and vendors with high-quality products that would meet construction designs and client specifications.
Customer engineers and cost engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Engineer | Cost Engineer | |
| Average salary | $101,212 | $87,901 |
| Salary range | Between $77,000 And $131,000 | Between $64,000 And $120,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | BP America Inc | |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Energy |
There are a few differences between a customer engineer and a cost engineer in terms of educational background:
| Customer Engineer | Cost Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between customer engineers' and cost engineers' demographics:
| Customer Engineer | Cost Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.4% Female, 9.6% | Male, 74.1% Female, 25.9% |
| 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, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.3% Asian, 14.4% White, 64.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |