Director, hardware engineering vs engineering director

The differences between directors, hardware engineering and engineering directors 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 an engineering director. Additionally, a director, hardware engineering has an average salary of $182,954, which is higher than the $162,252 average annual salary of an engineering director.

The top three skills for a director, hardware engineering include RF, product development and hardware development. The most important skills for an engineering director are java, architecture, and infrastructure.

Director, hardware engineering vs engineering director overview

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Engineering Director
Yearly salary	$182,954	$162,252
Hourly rate	$87.96	$78.01
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	63,781	63,868
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	-	-

Director, hardware engineering vs engineering director salary

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

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Engineering Director
Average salary	$182,954	$162,252
Salary range	Between $128,000 And $260,000	Between $109,000 And $239,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	California
Best paying company	NVIDIA	Brookfield Properties
Best paying industry	Start-up	Technology

Differences between director, hardware engineering and engineering director education

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

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

Director, hardware engineering vs engineering director demographics

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

	Director, Hardware Engineering	Engineering Director
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 92.9% Female, 7.1%	Male, 94.6% Female, 5.4%
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, 3.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.1% Asian, 13.1% White, 69.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between director, hardware engineering and engineering director 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.

Engineering director example responsibilities.

Monitor and manage performance base on multiple KPI's.
Manage all FCC filings for the registration of license frequencies.
Improve network reliability and manage signal leakage and FCC compliance.
Lead implementation and remediation efforts to ensure HIPPA, SOX, and PCI compliance.
Manage a team to develop and support SaaS base access control product for health care industry.
Manage release and deployments for multiple, concurrent Java project across varying release cycles from inception to delivery.

Director, hardware engineering vs engineering director skills

Common director, hardware engineering skills

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

Common engineering director skills

Java, 7%
Architecture, 7%
Infrastructure, 6%
AWS, 5%
Project Management, 5%
Customer Service, 4%

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Director, Hardware Engineering
Director, Hardware Engineering vs Engineering Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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