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The differences between plant engineering managers and engineering directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes More than 10 years to become both a plant engineering manager and an engineering director. Additionally, an engineering director has an average salary of $162,252, which is higher than the $92,265 average annual salary of a plant engineering manager.
The top three skills for a plant engineering manager include continuous improvement, capital projects and project management. The most important skills for an engineering director are java, architecture, and infrastructure.
| Plant Engineering Manager | Engineering Director | |
| Yearly salary | $92,265 | $162,252 |
| Hourly rate | $44.36 | $78.01 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 79,102 | 63,868 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 48 | 48 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
Plant Engineering Managers are responsible for the engineering and maintenance of a plant in meeting the safety and operational effectiveness requirements. Their duties include overseeing engineering project development, managing plant outages, establishing agreements with contractors and key service providers, assist in expense and capital budgeting, and conducting internal, technical, and cross-site root cause analysis to understand plant incidents. A Plant Engineering Manager sets key performance targets and contributes to employee training and recruitment.
An engineering director or director of engineering is an individual who manages a team of engineering managers and coordinates all the engineering activities within the organization. Engineering directors work closely with the organization's executives to develop new strategies to reduce unnecessary costs and time to complete their projects. They must understand and interpret complex sets of data such as profits, losses, or value of liabilities to identify problems and come up with solutions. Engineering directors must also ensure that safety protocols are implemented in the workforce.
Plant engineering managers and engineering directors have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Plant Engineering Manager | Engineering Director | |
| Average salary | $92,265 | $162,252 |
| Salary range | Between $68,000 And $124,000 | Between $109,000 And $239,000 |
| Highest paying City | Fairfield, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Blue Apron | Brookfield Properties |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Technology |
There are a few differences between a plant engineering manager and an engineering director in terms of educational background:
| Plant Engineering Manager | Engineering Director | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor |
Here are the differences between plant engineering managers' and engineering directors' demographics:
| Plant Engineering Manager | Engineering Director | |
| Average age | 48 | 48 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 95.9% Female, 4.1% | Male, 94.6% Female, 5.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 11.9% White, 71.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.1% Asian, 13.1% White, 69.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |