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Senior electrical designer vs outside plant engineer

The differences between senior electrical designers and outside plant 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 outside plant engineer. Additionally, a senior electrical designer has an average salary of $87,859, which is higher than the $85,603 average annual salary of an outside plant engineer.

The top three skills for a senior electrical designer include electrical design, revit and electrical equipment. The most important skills for an outside plant engineer are CAD, outside plant, and OSP.

Senior electrical designer vs outside plant engineer overview

Senior Electrical DesignerOutside Plant Engineer
Yearly salary$87,859$85,603
Hourly rate$42.24$41.16
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs78,83834,742
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 50%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age4545
Years of experience22

What does a senior electrical designer do?

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.

What does an outside plant engineer do?

The job of an outside plant engineer revolves around design, constructing, and maintaining plant infrastructure, engineering, and conducting route analysis of aerial and underground fiber-optic installations. Typical day-to-day duties include assisting clients in resolving issues when they arise, developing engineering plans, schedules, and costs relevant to the projects, and providing guidance on telecommunication issues. As an outside plant engineer, you need to ensure the proper installation of the infrastructure and the availability of fiber cable storage, access, and termination equipment.

Senior electrical designer vs outside plant engineer salary

Senior electrical designers and outside plant engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Electrical DesignerOutside Plant Engineer
Average salary$87,859$85,603
Salary rangeBetween $66,000 And $116,000Between $62,000 And $117,000
Highest paying CityCeres, CA-
Highest paying stateAlaska-
Best paying companyLam Research-
Best paying industryManufacturing-

Differences between senior electrical designer and outside plant engineer education

There are a few differences between a senior electrical designer and an outside plant engineer in terms of educational background:

Senior Electrical DesignerOutside Plant Engineer
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 50%Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringElectrical Engineering
Most common collegeMichigan Technological UniversityStanford University

Senior electrical designer vs outside plant engineer demographics

Here are the differences between senior electrical designers' and outside plant engineers' demographics:

Senior Electrical DesignerOutside Plant Engineer
Average age4545
Gender ratioMale, 89.2% Female, 10.8%Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5%
Race ratioBlack 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, 11.1% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between senior electrical designer and outside plant engineer duties and responsibilities

Senior electrical designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead all phases of facility HAZWOPER projects including environmental HVAC upgrades and environmental remediation initiatives.
  • Design control systems according to NFPA 79 and IEC 204 electrical standards.
  • Coordinate safety training and ensure OSHA compliance through training and site review.
  • Design include various NFPA requirements (including fire pumps).
  • Document existing control panels, HMI, and PLC s, to move or duplicate for the new operators control building.
  • Red-Line several large instrument/Electrical packages for as-built.
  • Show more

Outside plant engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage many key projects providing DS1, DS3 and SONET facilities for customers.
  • Train new techs on how to pull, repair and manage new and existing copper and fiber cabling systems.
  • Manage and provide training to a multicultural maintenance team using TPM principles and following standards such as AIB and BRC.
  • Determine and upgrade MDF and IDF layout in communications cabinets.
  • Cost estimates, design packages, GIS design, site walks and quality control.
  • Install new copper and fiber optic infrastructure to facilitate network expansion.
  • Show more

Senior electrical designer vs outside plant engineer skills

Common senior electrical designer skills
  • Electrical Design, 9%
  • Revit, 6%
  • Electrical Equipment, 5%
  • Electrical Systems, 5%
  • Autocad Electrical, 5%
  • NEC, 4%
Common outside plant engineer skills
  • CAD, 15%
  • Outside Plant, 11%
  • OSP, 10%
  • Fiber Optic, 7%
  • Plant Engineering, 5%
  • GIS, 5%

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