Design, creation, and testing of new products for companies are the responsibilities of Development Engineers. They work in every imaginable industry and develop substantially varying products. One developer can make mechanical toys while another can build medical devices in their career. Also known as product development engineers, they have experience in a field like mechanical engineering or biotech.
Development engineers can work in teams developing or hired to create devices or goods independently. Although much of the task is performed by them alone, they report whether a product has been developed or not to a team leader, project manager, or manager. At the same time, these professionals make around $90,340 per year.
Many employers prefer developmental engineers to have a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related discipline, such as biotechnology, for a pharmaceutical company. However, employers also accept applicants who have industry-related or RD-specific work history in place of education.
How to Become a Development Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a development engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $46.39 an hour? That's $96,498 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Development Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many development engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed listening skills, math skills and mechanical skills.
How To Become a Development Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a development engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 72.3% of development engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 16.6% of development engineers have master's degrees. Even though most development engineers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a development engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a development engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on development engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a development engineer. In fact, many development engineer jobs require experience in a role such as research assistant. Meanwhile, many development engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or project engineer.
Development Engineer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of project engineer you might progress to a role such as senior engineer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of software development.
Average Salary for a Development Engineer
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Development Engineers
1. Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI • Private
2. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Private
3. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
5. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
6. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
7. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
8. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
9. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
10. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Development Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.3% of development engineers listed python on their resume, but soft skills such as listening skills and math skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Development Engineer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Development Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Development Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Development Engineer Demographics
Development Engineer Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among development engineers, 14.5% of them are women, while 85.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among development engineers is White, which makes up 71.5% of all development engineers.
- The most common foreign language among development engineers is Spanish at 30.3%.
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Best States For a Development Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a development engineer. The best states for people in this position are California, Maine, Washington, and New Hampshire. Development engineers make the most in California with an average salary of $113,410. Whereas in Maine and Washington, they would average $105,443 and $105,233, respectively. While development engineers would only make an average of $103,853 in New Hampshire, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$113,410
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$105,233
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$103,853
Avg. Salary
How Do Development Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Development Engineer Employers
Most Common Employers For Development Engineer
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple | $129,528 | $62.27 | 47 |
| 2 | Sears Holdings | $123,120 | $59.19 | 43 |
| 3 | Amazon | $120,847 | $58.10 | 781 |
| 4 | Dell | $105,772 | $50.85 | 222 |
| 5 | Seagate Technology | $103,734 | $49.87 | 56 |
| 6 | Micron Technology | $102,794 | $49.42 | 93 |
| 7 | KLA | $101,219 | $48.66 | 455 |
| 8 | Newegg | $100,288 | $48.22 | 58 |
| 9 | Intel | $99,547 | $47.86 | 58 |
| 10 | General Motors | $97,872 | $47.05 | 72 |
Development Engineer Videos
Becoming a Development Engineer FAQs
Can everyone become an engineer?
No, not everyone can become an engineer. It takes time, dedication and a bachelor's degree from an accredited engineering program at a college or university. After graduating, you can get licensed to work as a Professional Engineer.
How much does a developmental engineer make?
A developmental engineer makes around $85,000 a year. However, this salary can range from $70,000 a year to over $110,000 in a year.
The range in salary level for a developmental engineer depends on a variety of factors. These factors include experience and education, as well as location, industry, and company. There are numerous unique combinations that any person may have of these five factors that will influence their specific salary.
What does a product development engineer do?
A product development engineer develops, designs, creates, and manages new product ideas for businesses. This highly specialized role comes with specific knowledge of taking products from the idea stage through to execution and commercialization.