Prototype technician vs assembly technician

The differences between prototype technicians and assembly technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a prototype technician has an average salary of $45,071, which is higher than the $34,952 average annual salary of an assembly technician.

The top three skills for a prototype technician include CAD, hand tools and CNC. The most important skills for an assembly technician are customer service, hand tools, and lean manufacturing.

Prototype technician vs assembly technician overview

	Prototype Technician	Assembly Technician
Yearly salary	$45,071	$34,952
Hourly rate	$21.67	$16.80
Growth rate	-	2%
Number of jobs	48,310	52,385
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	High School Diploma, 34%
Average age	50	49
Years of experience	12	-

Prototype technician vs assembly technician salary

Prototype technicians and assembly technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Prototype Technician	Assembly Technician
Average salary	$45,071	$34,952
Salary range	Between $34,000 And $58,000	Between $28,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	-	Sunnyvale, CA
Highest paying state	-	Washington
Best paying company	-	Jefferson Lab
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between prototype technician and assembly technician education

There are a few differences between a prototype technician and an assembly technician in terms of educational background:

	Prototype Technician	Assembly Technician
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	High School Diploma, 34%
Most common major	Automotive Technology	Business
Most common college	Purdue University	-

Prototype technician vs assembly technician demographics

Here are the differences between prototype technicians' and assembly technicians' demographics:

	Prototype Technician	Assembly Technician
Average age	50	49
Gender ratio	Male, 87.3% Female, 12.7%	Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 10.4% Asian, 8.0% White, 70.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 2.6% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 9.8% White, 60.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	8%	6%

Differences between prototype technician and assembly technician duties and responsibilities

Prototype technician example responsibilities.

Manage and distribute cad standards to contributing design consultants and assist with any design issues as necessary.
Wire and solder all connections to FDA standards.
Finish SLA and SLS parts for mold development.
Experience in reading micrometers, calipers, and blueprints.
Assist purchasing department in outside vendor (PCB fabrication) operations
Use precision measuring tools including calipers, gages, and torques.

Assembly technician example responsibilities.

Manage the flow of each pallet to ensure the group is able to produce the quality product.
Perform in microscope SMT hand soldering to IPC standards and rework BTC components.
Use proper electrical discharge PPE (personal protection equipment) in ESD zone properly to prevent unexpect incident or damage device.
Perform electro-mechanical tasks using a wide range of electronic equipment.
Install switches, gfi's.
Rework (complex wiring) to CCA's according to ECO's.

Prototype technician vs assembly technician skills

Common prototype technician skills

CAD, 11%
Hand Tools, 10%
CNC, 7%
Prototyping, 6%
Calipers, 6%
Autoclaves, 6%

Common assembly technician skills

Customer Service, 26%
Hand Tools, 12%
Lean Manufacturing, 4%
Safety Procedures, 4%
Basic Math, 3%
Sub Assemblies, 3%

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Prototype Technician
Prototype Technician vs Assembly Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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