Director, hardware engineering vs design engineering manager

The differences between directors, hardware engineering and design engineering managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes More than 10 years to become both a director, hardware engineering and a design engineering manager. Additionally, a director, hardware engineering has an average salary of $182,954, which is higher than the $143,603 average annual salary of a design engineering manager.

The top three skills for a director, hardware engineering include RF, product development and hardware development. The most important skills for a design engineering manager are CAD, project management, and aided design.

Director, hardware engineering vs design engineering manager overview

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Design Engineering Manager
Yearly salary	$182,954	$143,603
Hourly rate	$87.96	$69.04
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	63,781	102,491
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	-	-

Director, hardware engineering vs design engineering manager salary

Directors, hardware engineering and design engineering managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Design Engineering Manager
Average salary	$182,954	$143,603
Salary range	Between $128,000 And $260,000	Between $104,000 And $197,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	Washington
Best paying company	NVIDIA	Google
Best paying industry	Start-up	Construction

Differences between director, hardware engineering and design engineering manager education

There are a few differences between a director, hardware engineering and a design engineering manager in terms of educational background:

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Design Engineering Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Mechanical Engineering
Most common college	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Director, hardware engineering vs design engineering manager demographics

Here are the differences between directors, hardware engineering' and design engineering managers' demographics:

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Design Engineering Manager
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 92.9% Female, 7.1%	Male, 91.9% Female, 8.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 2.8% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.7% Asian, 17.9% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 12.1% White, 71.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between director, hardware engineering and design engineering manager duties and responsibilities

Director, hardware engineering example responsibilities.

Lead contract purchasing, PCB fabrication, contract board assembly, and ICT test fixture fabrication.
Select and manage contract resources for industrial design, mechanical design and fabrication, and PCB layout.
Manage design, tooling, equipment implementations and process improvements for foundry/machining metalworking manufacturer of automotive OEM products.
Hire to build world-class hardware development team including RF engineers.
Train subordinates to use FEA.
Involve in the design of a chip tray which incorporates RF antennas.

Design engineering manager example responsibilities.

Manage all inside and outside tooling and design work, programming of the CNC turret presses and laser cutting equipment.
Manage QA for research orient development efforts and for high visibility, production focuse development efforts tie to revenue generation.
Perform analysis including amplifier RF loop budgets and are a key contributor to the RF architecture.
Introduce SolidWorks for equipment design, component analysis, customer presentation, and photo rendering of products for marketing purposes.
Work closely with assembly to develop a BOM structure in MRP that optimize both the assembly and engineering release processes.
Lead engineering efforts of design, drawing creation, BOM development, test plan creation, manufacturing reviews and safety reviews.

Director, hardware engineering vs design engineering manager skills

Common director, hardware engineering skills

RF, 9%
Product Development, 8%
Hardware Development, 7%
Firmware, 6%
Mechanical Engineering, 5%
Hardware Products, 5%

Common design engineering manager skills

CAD, 10%
Project Management, 8%
Aided Design, 6%
Solidworks, 6%
Continuous Improvement, 5%
Mechanical Design, 4%

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Director, Hardware Engineering
Director, Hardware Engineering vs Design Engineering Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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