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The differences between design supervisors and chief 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 design supervisor and a chief engineer. Additionally, a chief engineer has an average salary of $108,050, which is higher than the $78,150 average annual salary of a design supervisor.
The top three skills for a design supervisor include autocad, engineering drawings and engineering design. The most important skills for a chief engineer are HVAC, plumbing, and customer service.
| Design Supervisor | Chief Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $78,150 | $108,050 |
| Hourly rate | $37.57 | $51.95 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 37,558 | 88,473 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A design supervisor oversees the daily operations of an organization's design team, ensuring projects are completed within deadlines, budgets, and client requirements. They are primarily responsible for understanding project specifications, establishing budgets and guidelines, coordinating with managers, delegating responsibilities, and conducting regular assessments and evaluations to ensure operations run smoothly and efficiently according to industry standards and regulations. They may also communicate directly with clients to provide them with updates, present reports to the director, and liaise with external parties such as suppliers and distributors.
A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes. A chief engineer must have excellent knowledge of the engineering disciplines and exemplary leadership skills to handle the team's performance towards the company's objectives.
Design supervisors and chief engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Design Supervisor | Chief Engineer | |
| Average salary | $78,150 | $108,050 |
| Salary range | Between $48,000 And $127,000 | Between $65,000 And $177,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Jose, CA | Palo Alto, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | BGC Partners |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Transportation |
There are a few differences between a design supervisor and a chief engineer in terms of educational background:
| Design Supervisor | Chief Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Drafting And Design | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between design supervisors' and chief engineers' demographics:
| Design Supervisor | Chief Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 77.0% Female, 23.0% | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 10.2% White, 71.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |