Engineering director vs design manager

The differences between engineering directors and design 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 manager. Additionally, an engineering director has an average salary of $162,252, which is higher than the $102,637 average annual salary of a design manager.

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

Engineering director vs design manager overview

	Engineering Director	Design Manager
Yearly salary	$162,252	$102,637
Hourly rate	$78.01	$49.34
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	63,868	61,273
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
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 manager do?

A design manager is responsible for creating graphic and digital designs, following clients' specifications, and managing project deliverables efficiently. Design managers work closely with the marketing and public relations department, developing strategies to promote the brand to the target audience. They coordinate with the creative team and present the design ideas to the management, ask for final approval, perform revisions as needed, and follow the budget goals. A design manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills to handle the design team's concerns and needs.

Engineering director vs design manager salary

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

	Engineering Director	Design Manager
Average salary	$162,252	$102,637
Salary range	Between $109,000 And $239,000	Between $69,000 And $150,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Brookfield Properties	Meta
Best paying industry	Technology	Technology

Differences between engineering director and design manager education

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

	Engineering Director	Design Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Graphic Design
Most common college	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Engineering director vs design manager demographics

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

	Engineering Director	Design Manager
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 94.6% Female, 5.4%	Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2%
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, 11.8% White, 71.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between engineering director and design 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.

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Design manager example responsibilities.

Help achieve status of medical device manufacturer through the FDA.
Manage several consultants preparing contract documents on the various NYC let and NYS let projects.
Manage and collaborate with ASIC library/memory vendors.
Manage design, tooling, equipment implementations and process improvements for foundry/machining metalworking manufacturer of automotive OEM products.
Design blueprints, bills of materials, FEA as required.
Include producing FDA and ISO-9000 level documentation of the project.

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Engineering director vs design manager skills

Common engineering director skills

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

Common design manager skills

Sketch, 8%
Project Management, 8%
Visualization, 5%
User Experience, 4%
PowerPoint, 4%
Design Process, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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