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The differences between planning engineers and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project manager has an average salary of $91,578, which is higher than the $82,521 average annual salary of a planning engineer.
The top three skills for a planning engineer include project management, infrastructure and transmission planning. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.
| Planning Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $82,521 | $91,578 |
| Hourly rate | $39.67 | $44.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 56,792 | 167,116 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.17 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 42 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 4 | - |
A planning engineer is in charge of developing plans and systems to organize and schedule project procedures, ensuring efficiency and timeliness. Their responsibilities revolve around learning and understanding the extent of all operations, setting schedules and objectives, liaising with external parties such as vendors or distributors, and maintaining an active communication line with other departments. Furthermore, a planning engineer must monitor the progress of the workflow and the performance of the workforce, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.
Planning engineers and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Planning Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Average salary | $82,521 | $91,578 |
| Salary range | Between $61,000 And $110,000 | Between $64,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | The Citadel |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Technology |
There are a few differences between a planning engineer and a project manager in terms of educational background:
| Planning Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between planning engineers' and project managers' demographics:
| Planning Engineer | Project Manager | |
| Average age | 42 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 83.2% Female, 16.8% | Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 15.6% White, 65.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 10% |