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The differences between senior design projects and 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 senior design project and a design engineer. Additionally, a senior design project has an average salary of $92,208, which is higher than the $77,134 average annual salary of a design engineer.
The top three skills for a senior design project include solidworks, medical devices and prototype. The most important skills for a design engineer are C++, UL, and project management.
| Senior Design Project | Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $92,208 | $77,134 |
| Hourly rate | $44.33 | $37.08 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 70,865 | 138,173 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 86% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A senior design project worker is responsible for developing digital content designs and applications using various software tools, following clients' specifications and requests. Senior designers must be highly-organizational and communicative, especially on providing progress updates to the client and performing multiple design adjustments as needed. A senior designer should create and recommend designs based on the clients' budget goals without compromising the quality of the output. Senior design projects work closely with the design engineering team to maintain flawless layouts and achieve client satisfaction.
A design engineer is responsible for creating systems and applications based on their expertise. Design engineers work through client specifications based on business needs. A design engineer also provides recommendations on improving existing systems to boost its performance and increase efficiency. Design engineers must have an excellent command of computer systems, programming codes, and technical data to ensure the system's stability and high-quality processes. A design engineer should also have strong analytical and time-management skills to perform tasks and meet deadlines.
Senior design projects and design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Design Project | Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $92,208 | $77,134 |
| Salary range | Between $70,000 And $120,000 | Between $57,000 And $102,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | HDR | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior design project and a design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Design Project | Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 86% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Georgia Institute of Technology | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between senior design projects' and design engineers' demographics:
| Senior Design Project | Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 80.3% Female, 19.7% | Male, 88.9% Female, 11.1% |
| 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, 3.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian, 16.8% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |