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The differences between outside plant 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 outside plant engineer and a system design engineer. Additionally, a system design engineer has an average salary of $107,704, which is higher than the $85,603 average annual salary of an outside plant engineer.
The top three skills for an outside plant engineer include CAD, outside plant and OSP. The most important skills for a system design engineer are system design, architecture, and MATLAB.
| Outside Plant Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $85,603 | $107,704 |
| Hourly rate | $41.16 | $51.78 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 34,742 | 113,582 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
The job of an outside plant engineer revolves around design, constructing, and maintaining plant infrastructure, engineering, and conducting route analysis of aerial and underground fiber-optic installations. Typical day-to-day duties include assisting clients in resolving issues when they arise, developing engineering plans, schedules, and costs relevant to the projects, and providing guidance on telecommunication issues. As an outside plant engineer, you need to ensure the proper installation of the infrastructure and the availability of fiber cable storage, access, and termination equipment.
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
Outside plant engineers and system design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Outside Plant Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $85,603 | $107,704 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $117,000 | Between $77,000 And $149,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Meta |
| Best paying industry | - | Automotive |
There are a few differences between an outside plant engineer and a system design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Outside Plant Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between outside plant engineers' and system design engineers' demographics:
| Outside Plant Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5% | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.1% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% 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% |