Mechanical design technician vs senior engineer

The differences between mechanical design technicians and senior 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 a senior engineer. Additionally, a senior engineer has an average salary of $108,743, 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 a senior engineer are java, python, and architecture.

Mechanical design technician vs senior engineer overview

	Mechanical Design Technician	Senior Engineer
Yearly salary	$60,714	$108,743
Hourly rate	$29.19	$52.28
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	62,685	343,200
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	6	6

Mechanical design technician vs senior engineer salary

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

	Mechanical Design Technician	Senior Engineer
Average salary	$60,714	$108,743
Salary range	Between $47,000 And $77,000	Between $82,000 And $144,000
Highest paying City	-	San Mateo, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Roku
Best paying industry	-	Start-up

Differences between mechanical design technician and senior engineer education

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

	Mechanical Design Technician	Senior Engineer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	Northwestern University	Michigan Technological University

Mechanical design technician vs senior engineer demographics

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

	Mechanical Design Technician	Senior Engineer
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 89.3% Female, 10.7%	Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9%
Race ratio	Black 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, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.1% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between mechanical design technician and senior 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.

Senior engineer example responsibilities.

Tune the TCP/IP, NFS and CIFS for 1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet to achieve performance goals.
Manage multiple releases of a global CRM initiative with on time and within budget deployment.
Implement and support migration tool used to automate promotion of code throughout all SDLC environments.
Manage & lead process analysis, design, & ERP implementation engagements at various client locations.
Design, lead design, or participate in design of five T/R modules for phase array antennas.
Create customized shell scripts to start-up and shut-down WebLogic admin and manage servers and integrate them with the OS.

Mechanical design technician vs senior engineer skills

Common mechanical design technician skills

CAD, 17%
Revit, 10%
Fire Protection, 9%
Solidworks, 8%
Assembly Drawings, 6%
BIM, 6%

Common senior engineer skills

Java, 10%
Python, 9%
Architecture, 7%
JavaScript, 4%
API, 4%
GIT, 3%

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Mechanical Design Technician
Mechanical Design Technician vs Senior Engineer

Updated January 8, 2025

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