Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between refrigeration engineers and product design engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a refrigeration engineer and a product design engineer. Additionally, a product design engineer has an average salary of $94,827, which is higher than the $88,921 average annual salary of a refrigeration engineer.
The top three skills for a refrigeration engineer include HVAC, freon and plumbing. The most important skills for a product design engineer are CAD, mechanical design, and GD.
| Refrigeration Engineer | Product Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $88,921 | $94,827 |
| Hourly rate | $42.75 | $45.59 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 64,405 | 170,485 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
Refrigeration engineers are generally called to design and oversee the fabrication of both residential and industrial refrigeration systems, as well as troubleshoot any potential problems therewith. This choice of career will require a good knowledge base of thermodynamics, as well as computer-aided design systems. Refrigeration engineers must also have an understanding of health and safety regulation standards.
A Product Design Engineer designs new products that customers will want to purchase. They are responsible for designing, modeling, and testing prototypes for products.
Refrigeration engineers and product design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Refrigeration Engineer | Product Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $88,921 | $94,827 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $125,000 | Between $69,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | Newark, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Standex International | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Technology |
There are a few differences between a refrigeration engineer and a product design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Refrigeration Engineer | Product Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Heating And Air Conditioning | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Duke University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between refrigeration engineers' and product design engineers' demographics:
| Refrigeration Engineer | Product Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 99.0% Female, 1.0% | Male, 90.9% Female, 9.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian, 16.2% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |