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Electrical & instrumentation designer vs junior engineer

The differences between electrical & instrumentation designers and junior engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become an electrical & instrumentation designer, becoming a junior engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, an electrical & instrumentation designer has an average salary of $81,188, which is higher than the $70,653 average annual salary of a junior engineer.

The top three skills for an electrical & instrumentation designer include PLC, instrumentation design and control systems. The most important skills for a junior engineer are control systems, java, and C++.

Electrical & instrumentation designer vs junior engineer overview

Electrical & Instrumentation DesignerJunior Engineer
Yearly salary$81,188$70,653
Hourly rate$39.03$33.97
Growth rate3%2%
Number of jobs81,243107,703
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 53%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age4541
Years of experience26

What does an electrical & instrumentation designer do?

An electrical instrumentation designer's main job is to design instruments that can be used in various areas such as laboratories, power plants, or research institutes. They work together with a team or individually to design instruments, create a prototype, and test its functions. They can even install these instruments in different establishments and locations. They are tasked with repair and training engineers. At other times, they are assigned to record expenses and other documentation.

What does a junior engineer do?

A Junior Engineer helps design, build, or maintain engines, machines, or public works. They work under the supervision of an engineer.

Electrical & instrumentation designer vs junior engineer salary

Electrical & instrumentation designers and junior engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Electrical & Instrumentation DesignerJunior Engineer
Average salary$81,188$70,653
Salary rangeBetween $60,000 And $109,000Between $54,000 And $91,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-Washington
Best paying company-Apple
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between electrical & instrumentation designer and junior engineer education

There are a few differences between an electrical & instrumentation designer and a junior engineer in terms of educational background:

Electrical & Instrumentation DesignerJunior Engineer
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 53%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorDrafting And DesignCivil Engineering
Most common collegeMichigan Technological UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Electrical & instrumentation designer vs junior engineer demographics

Here are the differences between electrical & instrumentation designers' and junior engineers' demographics:

Electrical & Instrumentation DesignerJunior Engineer
Average age4541
Gender ratioMale, 85.2% Female, 14.8%Male, 83.4% Female, 16.6%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.5% Asian, 14.3% White, 64.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.7% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage6%5%

Differences between electrical & instrumentation designer and junior engineer duties and responsibilities

Electrical & instrumentation designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage database for PDF drawings and other electronic files.
  • Modify chemical process areas with new control installations, utilizing various DCS's, and PLC's on these projects.
  • Work in PDMS creating instruments, cable tray routing, locating junction boxes, remote I/O cabinets, and lighting.
  • Work include modification of existing instrument panels to accept PLC & DCS racks and wiring; update pneumatic instrumentation to electronics.
  • Develop new instrument installation detail drawings, instrument location plan drawings, instrument elevation drawings and loop diagrams for the refinery.
  • Design process plant instrumentation and electrical power systems within NEC and industry standards.
  • Show more

Junior engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage the collection of static HTML sites for marketing.
  • Manage Terraform and refactore from monolithic to application specific components.
  • Work on HTML, CSS & Java.
  • Used CSS, HTML/XHTML, and JavaScript to customize the front-end of a large web application.
  • Design the user interactive (UI) web pages using web technologies like HTML5, XHTML, and CSS3.
  • Work on the windows default firewall application.
  • Show more

Electrical & instrumentation designer vs junior engineer skills

Common electrical & instrumentation designer skills
  • PLC, 8%
  • Instrumentation Design, 7%
  • Control Systems, 6%
  • I/O, 5%
  • Electrical Design, 4%
  • Panel Layouts, 4%
Common junior engineer skills
  • Control Systems, 11%
  • Java, 8%
  • C++, 5%
  • C #, 5%
  • Windows, 5%
  • Troubleshoot, 5%

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