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Mechanical design technician vs engineer

The differences between mechanical design technicians and engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a mechanical design technician and an engineer. Additionally, an engineer has an average salary of $92,077, which is higher than the $60,714 average annual salary of a mechanical design technician.

The top three skills for a mechanical design technician include CAD, revit and fire protection. The most important skills for an engineer are python, cloud, and C++.

Mechanical design technician vs engineer overview

Mechanical Design TechnicianEngineer
Yearly salary$60,714$92,077
Hourly rate$29.19$44.27
Growth rate2%2%
Number of jobs62,685618,207
Job satisfaction-4.33
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 59%Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Average age4141
Years of experience66

Mechanical design technician vs engineer salary

Mechanical design technicians and engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Mechanical Design TechnicianEngineer
Average salary$60,714$92,077
Salary rangeBetween $47,000 And $77,000Between $65,000 And $130,000
Highest paying City-Huntsville, AL
Highest paying state-New Hampshire
Best paying company-Fort Bend County
Best paying industry-Automotive

Differences between mechanical design technician and engineer education

There are a few differences between a mechanical design technician and an engineer in terms of educational background:

Mechanical Design TechnicianEngineer
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 59%Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Most common majorDrafting And DesignMechanical Engineering
Most common collegeNorthwestern UniversityMichigan Technological University

Mechanical design technician vs engineer demographics

Here are the differences between mechanical design technicians' and engineers' demographics:

Mechanical Design TechnicianEngineer
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 89.3% Female, 10.7%Male, 86.3% Female, 13.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.1% Asian, 15.0% White, 67.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage5%5%

Differences between mechanical design technician and engineer duties and responsibilities

Mechanical design technician example responsibilities.

  • Provide mechanical design and sustaining engineering expertise to troubleshoot manufacturing defect trends and achieve a more robust and producible product.
  • Design and model changes to drawings for support of fabrication and installation of HVAC, plumbing and major commercial/industrial/residential pipe systems.
  • Engineer air-conditioning, heating, refrigeration, plumbing, and electrical power supply for renovate building spaces.
  • Convert and clean-up architectural background drawings and establish mechanical and plumbing drawings.
  • Create BOM for the lines; compose design documentation utilizing technical drawings and engineering specifications.
  • Design and manufacture documentation for custom smart power distribution products including customer specifications and vendor BOM's.
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Engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage startup, trouble shooting and testing of PLC control equipment.
  • Lead project team to design and FDA validate 10-up extreme accuracy vial dosing system and CIP/SIP automate cleaning equipment.
  • Automate the creation of a WebLogic Admin and manage server deployment scheme within an installer for secure application deployment.
  • Install and test PLC in client own equipment on site - solve some logical and hardware issues to accomplish goal
  • Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS.
  • Manage Terraform and refactore from monolithic to application specific components.
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Mechanical design technician vs engineer skills

Common mechanical design technician skills
  • CAD, 17%
  • Revit, 10%
  • Fire Protection, 9%
  • Solidworks, 8%
  • Assembly Drawings, 6%
  • BIM, 6%
Common engineer skills
  • Python, 8%
  • Cloud, 6%
  • C++, 5%
  • C #, 5%
  • AWS, 5%
  • Java, 4%

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