Engineering director vs design engineering manager

The differences between engineering directors 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 an engineering director and a design engineering manager. Additionally, an engineering director has an average salary of $162,252, which is higher than the $143,603 average annual salary of a design engineering manager.

The top three skills for an engineering director include java, architecture and infrastructure. The most important skills for a design engineering manager are CAD, project management, and aided design.

Engineering director vs design engineering manager overview

	Engineering Director	Design Engineering Manager
Yearly salary	$162,252	$143,603
Hourly rate	$78.01	$69.04
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	63,868	102,491
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	-	-

What does an engineering director do?

An engineering director or director of engineering is an individual who manages a team of engineering managers and coordinates all the engineering activities within the organization. Engineering directors work closely with the organization's executives to develop new strategies to reduce unnecessary costs and time to complete their projects. They must understand and interpret complex sets of data such as profits, losses, or value of liabilities to identify problems and come up with solutions. Engineering directors must also ensure that safety protocols are implemented in the workforce.

What does a design engineering manager do?

A design engineering manager is in charge of overseeing engineering projects and managing a team of design engineers, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. It is their duty to ensure that projects adhere to the budgets and schedules, set objectives and guidelines, organize staff schedules, liaise with external parties such as vendors and suppliers, and develop designs according to the project's needs and the clients' preferences. They must also handle issues and concerns, resolving them in a prompt and efficient manner.

Engineering director vs design engineering manager salary

Engineering directors and design engineering managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Engineering Director	Design Engineering Manager
Average salary	$162,252	$143,603
Salary range	Between $109,000 And $239,000	Between $104,000 And $197,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	Brookfield Properties	Google
Best paying industry	Technology	Construction

Differences between engineering director and design engineering manager education

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

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

Engineering director vs design engineering manager demographics

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

	Engineering Director	Design Engineering Manager
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 94.6% Female, 5.4%	Male, 91.9% Female, 8.1%
Race ratio	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%	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 engineering director and design engineering manager duties and responsibilities

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.

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.

Engineering director vs design engineering manager skills

Common engineering director skills

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

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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Engineering Director
Engineering Director vs Design Engineering Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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