Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between design supervisors and product 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 product engineer. Additionally, a product engineer has an average salary of $89,645, 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 product engineer are CAD, product design, and project management.
| Design Supervisor | Product Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $78,150 | $89,645 |
| Hourly rate | $37.57 | $43.10 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 37,558 | 157,888 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| 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 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.
Design supervisors and product engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Design Supervisor | Product Engineer | |
| Average salary | $78,150 | $89,645 |
| Salary range | Between $48,000 And $127,000 | Between $68,000 And $118,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Jose, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a design supervisor and a product engineer in terms of educational background:
| Design Supervisor | Product Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| 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 product engineers' demographics:
| Design Supervisor | Product Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 77.0% Female, 23.0% | Male, 87.8% Female, 12.2% |
| 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, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.0% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |