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The differences between senior electrical designers and instrumentation & control engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior electrical designer and an instrumentation & control engineer. Additionally, an instrumentation & control engineer has an average salary of $92,464, which is higher than the $87,859 average annual salary of a senior electrical designer.
The top three skills for a senior electrical designer include electrical design, revit and electrical equipment. The most important skills for an instrumentation & control engineer are PLC, HMI, and SCADA.
| Senior Electrical Designer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $87,859 | $92,464 |
| Hourly rate | $42.24 | $44.45 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 78,838 | 51,065 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Associate Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A Senior Electrical Designer is in charge of creating electrical schematics, layouts, and other grid plans for their organization, as well as providing the best solution for improvements. They supervise the material, construction, labor costs, and project timescales.
An instrumentation and control engineer is responsible for installing and designing technical components for engineering systems that would support production and manufacturing processes. Instrumentation and control engineers inspect control systems, modify features and infrastructure, configure controllers, and run multiple quality checks to ensure stability and optimal performance. They must have excellent communication and technical skills, especially in developing system codes and analyzing programming languages to serve control functions and development. An instrumentation and control engineer also resolves system issues and write resolution reports for reference.
Senior electrical designers and instrumentation & control engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Electrical Designer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Average salary | $87,859 | $92,464 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $116,000 | Between $70,000 And $121,000 |
| Highest paying City | Ceres, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Alaska | Washington |
| Best paying company | Lam Research | Marathon Petroleum |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Energy |
There are a few differences between a senior electrical designer and an instrumentation & control engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Electrical Designer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Associate Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between senior electrical designers' and instrumentation & control engineers' demographics:
| Senior Electrical Designer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.2% Female, 10.8% | Male, 90.2% Female, 9.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |