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The differences between customer engineers and customer support engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a customer engineer, becoming a customer support engineer takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a customer engineer has an average salary of $101,212, which is higher than the $82,674 average annual salary of a customer support engineer.
The top three skills for a customer engineer include customer service, technical problems and level agreements. The most important skills for a customer support engineer are customer support, technical support, and customer service.
| Customer Engineer | Customer Support Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $101,212 | $82,674 |
| Hourly rate | $48.66 | $39.75 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 44,709 | 138,641 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Average age | 45 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 2 |
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 customer support engineer is responsible for providing the highest customer service by responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns and resolving their complaints regarding the technical products of the company. Customer support engineers handle escalated requests, determine technical solutions, and write resolution reports for reference. They also manage the installation and upgrades of network systems based on clients' specifications to ensure that their systems work with maximum performance. A customer support engineer must have excellent communication and technical skills, especially in recommending improvements to prevent system failures and minimize customers' complaints.
Customer engineers and customer support engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Engineer | Customer Support Engineer | |
| Average salary | $101,212 | $82,674 |
| Salary range | Between $77,000 And $131,000 | Between $59,000 And $114,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Washington |
| Best paying company | Nokia | |
| Best paying industry | Start-up | Technology |
There are a few differences between a customer engineer and a customer support engineer in terms of educational background:
| Customer Engineer | Customer Support Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Stanford University | California State University - Long Beach |
Here are the differences between customer engineers' and customer support engineers' demographics:
| Customer Engineer | Customer Support Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.4% Female, 9.6% | Male, 85.8% Female, 14.2% |
| 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, 9.7% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 14.9% Asian, 15.0% White, 54.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 11% |