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The differences between product engineers and product owners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a product engineer, becoming a product owner takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a product owner has an average salary of $97,070, which is higher than the $89,645 average annual salary of a product engineer.
The top three skills for a product engineer include CAD, product design and project management. The most important skills for a product owner are user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
| Product Engineer | Product Owner | |
| Yearly salary | $89,645 | $97,070 |
| Hourly rate | $43.10 | $46.67 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 157,888 | 129,990 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 41 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 10 |
A product engineer specializes in designing and developing commercial materials and services. They are primarily responsible for conducting thorough research and analysis of the latest trends and marketing conditions to come up with new ideas and products for the public. Moreover, they are also responsible for producing reports and presentations, coordinating with the development team of their company. Product engineers also reach out to vendors and suppliers for the raw materials, set regulations and standards for the product, and even conduct a rigorous and regular quality check.
Product owners are at the forefront of an organization's development cycle. They have various duties and responsibilities, which include ensuring that the value of products created by the development team is maximized, creating a vision and defining the goals for development projects, and working closely with all stakeholders. As the product owner, you are responsible for ensuring that the development team maintains a consistent vision and overseeing the product backlog. You are also expected to supervise the actual product development stages and anticipate the needs of clients.
Product engineers and product owners have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Product Engineer | Product Owner | |
| Average salary | $89,645 | $97,070 |
| Salary range | Between $68,000 And $118,000 | Between $71,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | ORIX USA |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a product engineer and a product owner in terms of educational background:
| Product Engineer | Product Owner | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Business |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between product engineers' and product owners' demographics:
| Product Engineer | Product Owner | |
| Average age | 41 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.8% Female, 12.2% | Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 17.0% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 10% |