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What is a product development engineer and how to become one
It is the product development engineer's duty to conceptualize and design products to meet a company's specifications. As a product development engineer, you might be required to oversee the design team, test new product designs, and draft specifications for the development of new products.
Your responsibilities include performing market research to aid your understanding of market requirements and design accordingly, using CAD software to design prototypes, testing prototypes for troubleshooting problems, sampling materials, manufacturing processes, and other important elements in the production process. You will also be required to analyze existing products, identify areas of improvement and provide necessary updates. Don't forget to establish quality control guidelines and safety measures that must be adhered to by all production staff.
Employers are constantly on the lookout for product development engineers with a good working knowledge of manufacturing processes, materials, and quality control protocols. Experience with 3D modeling software is also very essential. The minimum educational requirement is a bachelor's degree in a related engineering field. The average product development engineer earns $82,680 annually.
What general advice would you give to a product development engineer?
Jerry Leth
VP/General Manager, MANA
To a recent college graduate, a question I pose is, "Am I going to be happier and more satisfied working for someone? Or would I be more satisfied if I embarked on a path that leads me to own my own business?"
If the answer is owning your own business, consider looking for employment as an outside salesperson for an existing manufacturers' representative business. Our average member employs six outside salespersons, and the largest employs 160. Starting out as an employee provides an opportunity to learn about the business while earning an income. When you are ready, many manufacturers' representative firms offer ownership opportunities to employees, or you may choose to move on and start your own business. Either way, you achieve your goal of owning and running your own business.
Avg. Salary $86,075
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 2%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%
Asian 16.66%
Black or African American 3.06%
Hispanic or Latino 7.80%
Unknown 4.51%
White 67.86%
Genderfemale 13.19%
male 86.81%
Age - 39American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 39Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is advanced
7 - challenging
Work life balance is fair
6.4 - fair
Product development engineer career paths
Key steps to become a product development engineer
Explore product development engineer education requirements
Start to develop specific product development engineer skills
Skills Percentages CAD 5.97% Solidworks 5.40% Product Development 5.39% Project Management 4.33% Data Analysis 3.80% Complete relevant product development engineer training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New product development engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a product development engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real product development engineer resumes.Research product development engineer duties and responsibilities
- Manage design control including FMEA risk analysis, surgeon clinical input documentation, design verification and validation activities.
- Manage project from conceptual design through final debugging and animal/clinical testing resulting in a new business unit within the company.
- Create java test template design to vary equation specs and loop pattern bursts.
- Develop and maintain websites in HTML, CSS and JAVA script by writing, debugging, and testing.
Prepare your product development engineer resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your product development engineer resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a product development engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
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Build a professional product development engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your product development engineer resume.
Apply for product development engineer jobs
Now it's time to start searching for a product development engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
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Average product development engineer salary
The average product development engineer salary in the United States is $86,075 per year or $41 per hour. Product development engineer salaries range between $64,000 and $113,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do product development engineers rate their job?
Product development engineer reviews
It can gurantee you a good salary and if you are creative you can do many things.
you have to be creative.
Investigation. I love to dig and dig to find hidden gems of information that can be pivtol to the project.
There is tons of reading involved, not everything is interesting so it can be a bit much to read and analyze what seems like endless information. But I still love it.
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Updated January 8, 2025
