There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director of systems engineering. For example, did you know that they make an average of $73.23 an hour? That's $152,318 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many directors of systems engineering 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 business skills, leadership skills and analytical skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a director of systems engineering, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.6% of directors of systems engineering included engineering support, while 7.8% of resumes included hardware, and 6.0% of resumes included infrastructure. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the director of systems engineering job title. But what industry to start with? Most directors of systems engineering actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a director of systems engineering, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.4% of directors of systems engineering have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 34.8% of directors of systems engineering have master's degrees. Even though most directors of systems engineering have a college degree, it's possible 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 director of systems engineering. When we researched the most common majors for a director of systems engineering, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on director of systems engineering resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a director of systems engineering. In fact, many director of systems engineering jobs require experience in a role such as systems engineer. Meanwhile, many directors of systems engineering also have previous career experience in roles such as senior systems engineer or manager, systems engineering.
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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 engineering director you might progress to a role such as vice president of engineering eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title vice president of engineering.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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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, 11.6% of directors of systems engineering listed engineering support on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and leadership skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a director of systems engineering. The best states for people in this position are New York, California, Maine, and New Jersey. Directors of systems engineering make the most in New York with an average salary of $176,904. Whereas in California and Maine, they would average $162,002 and $157,465, respectively. While directors of systems engineering would only make an average of $153,982 in New Jersey, 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. New York
$176,904
Avg. Salary
2. New Hampshire
$149,160
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
$149,899
Avg. Salary