Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between field support engineers and service engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a field support engineer, becoming a service engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a field support engineer has an average salary of $96,499, which is higher than the $87,151 average annual salary of a service engineer.
The top three skills for a field support engineer include technical support, troubleshoot and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a service engineer are customer service, infrastructure, and cloud.
| Field Support Engineer | Service Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $96,499 | $87,151 |
| Hourly rate | $46.39 | $41.90 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 174,765 | 143,806 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 56% | Bachelor's Degree, 57% |
| Average age | 43 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
Field support engineers are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for providing on-site functions for the network systems of clients. These engineers must assist their clients in solving complex technical issues to reduce the occurrence of network connectivity issues. They must perform routine maintenance checkups to ensure that the network systems of their clients are operating consistently and efficiently. Field support engineers are also required to offer guidance and training to the client personnel to educate them about the operation of the product as well as maintenance procedures.
A service engineer is responsible for assisting the customers' concerns regarding the products and services offered by the company through technical support solutions. Service engineers conduct preventive maintenance, upgrade systems to boost optimal performance, create product manuals, record the occurring issues, perform adjustments on the systems infrastructure, identify business opportunities to generate more revenues, and analyze current market trends to meet client demands. A service engineer must have excellent communication skills, including extensive knowledge of the technology industry and network systems.
Field support engineers and service engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Field Support Engineer | Service Engineer | |
| Average salary | $96,499 | $87,151 |
| Salary range | Between $65,000 And $142,000 | Between $62,000 And $122,000 |
| Highest paying City | Sacramento, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Technology |
There are a few differences between a field support engineer and a service engineer in terms of educational background:
| Field Support Engineer | Service Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 56% | Bachelor's Degree, 57% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | California State University - Long Beach | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between field support engineers' and service engineers' demographics:
| Field Support Engineer | Service Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.6% Female, 9.4% | Male, 91.8% Female, 8.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.3% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 13.2% White, 69.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 5% |