Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between instrumentation engineers and system design engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an instrumentation engineer and a system design engineer. Additionally, a system design engineer has an average salary of $107,704, which is higher than the $88,783 average annual salary of an instrumentation engineer.
The top three skills for an instrumentation engineer include PLC, autocad and analyzers. The most important skills for a system design engineer are system design, architecture, and MATLAB.
| Instrumentation Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $88,783 | $107,704 |
| Hourly rate | $42.68 | $51.78 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 45,735 | 113,582 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
An instrumentation engineer specializes in designing and developing equipment to optimize business processes. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify the needs of a company, coordinating with different departments to gather data, devising strategies to create new processes, and preparing reports and presentations for the executives. An instrumentation engineer mostly performs installations and repairs; they also conduct regular maintenance to ensure the efficiency of facilities. Furthermore, they must answer inquiries and resolve issues and concerns, all in adherence to the company's policies and regulations.
A system design engineer is an individual who participates in system design engineering and resolves manufacturing and service problems. System design engineers are required to collaborate with the system design team to research emerging technologies and develop new capabilities. They create design layouts by utilizing the use of CAD software such as AutoCad as well as supervise a group of CAD technicians. System design engineers must also provide customer service in the field and deliver individualized problem solving and system design support
Instrumentation engineers and system design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Instrumentation Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $88,783 | $107,704 |
| Salary range | Between $65,000 And $119,000 | Between $77,000 And $149,000 |
| Highest paying City | Cupertino, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Government | Automotive |
There are a few differences between an instrumentation engineer and a system design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Instrumentation Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between instrumentation engineers' and system design engineers' demographics:
| Instrumentation Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.5% Asian, 15.5% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.4% Asian, 15.4% White, 63.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |