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The differences between customer quality engineers and product engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a customer quality engineer, becoming a product engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a product engineer has an average salary of $89,645, which is higher than the $82,508 average annual salary of a customer quality engineer.
The top three skills for a customer quality engineer include corrective action, product quality and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a product engineer are CAD, product design, and project management.
| Customer Quality Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $82,508 | $89,645 |
| Hourly rate | $39.67 | $43.10 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 86,365 | 157,888 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 6 |
A customer quality engineer is accountable for all in-process batches with quality issues. You will be responsible for minimizing variations with quality processes and supporting all customer root cause audits, investigations, and visits. Other duties include processing field audits, assisting in new product launches, and participating in the control process and product quality planning. In addition, you are expected to relay customer feedback and expectations on product quality to the quality management team. You are also expected to conduct training the team in identifying and creating methodologies to solve quality issues.
A product engineer specializes in designing and developing commercial materials and services. They are primarily responsible for conducting thorough research and analysis of the latest trends and marketing conditions to come up with new ideas and products for the public. Moreover, they are also responsible for producing reports and presentations, coordinating with the development team of their company. Product engineers also reach out to vendors and suppliers for the raw materials, set regulations and standards for the product, and even conduct a rigorous and regular quality check.
Customer quality engineers and product engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Quality Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Average salary | $82,508 | $89,645 |
| Salary range | Between $64,000 And $106,000 | Between $68,000 And $118,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Clara, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a customer quality engineer and a product engineer in terms of educational background:
| Customer Quality Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between customer quality engineers' and product engineers' demographics:
| Customer Quality Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% | Male, 87.8% Female, 12.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.0% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.0% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 5% |