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The differences between senior design specialists and senior design projects 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 specialist and a senior design project. Additionally, a senior design specialist has an average salary of $96,923, which is higher than the $92,208 average annual salary of a senior design project.
The top three skills for a senior design specialist include sketch, SR and design solutions. The most important skills for a senior design project are solidworks, medical devices, and prototype.
| Senior Design Specialist | Senior Design Project | |
| Yearly salary | $96,923 | $92,208 |
| Hourly rate | $46.60 | $44.33 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 45,603 | 70,865 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 86% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A senior design specialist's main responsibility is managing design projects and delivering them within the deadlines. They have to also look after the junior designers and ensure that the quality of designs meets company standards.
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.
Senior design specialists and senior design projects have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Design Specialist | Senior Design Project | |
| Average salary | $96,923 | $92,208 |
| Salary range | Between $71,000 And $131,000 | Between $70,000 And $120,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | McKinsey & Company Inc | HDR |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior design specialist and a senior design project in terms of educational background:
| Senior Design Specialist | Senior Design Project | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 86% |
| Most common major | Drafting And Design | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between senior design specialists' and senior design projects' demographics:
| Senior Design Specialist | Senior Design Project | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.9% Female, 25.1% | Male, 80.3% Female, 19.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.1% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |