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.
Senior electrical designer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior electrical designer resumes:
- 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.
- Design of refinery electrical and instrumentation systems.
- Provide instrument/control conduit layouts from upper/lower PLC control rooms to associate areas.
- Used InTools software to enter process equipment data and generate instrumentation specifications.
- Utilize a proportional integral derivative control loop to develop a PID controller.
- Resolve as-built installation discrepancies of existing shipboard systems to ensure design integrity are maintained/ exceed.
- Develop library files and custom AutoCAD menus standardizing drafting procedures, resulting in increase drafting productivity and efficiency.
- Create ECO's to deliver cost savings.
- Revise or create installation to modeling changes per ECN's.
- Complete all GIS mapping request by agree upon date.
Senior electrical designer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Senior Electrical Designers are proficient in Electrical Design, Revit, and Electrical Equipment. They’re also known for soft skills such as Initiative, Speaking skills, and Writing skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Electrical Designers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Electrical Design, 9%
Provide design consulting solutions encompassing all electrical design processes as a government contractor for several facilities within the Department of Defense.
- Revit, 6%
Interfaced with Mechanical Engineers to obtain equipment information for material handling process Operated REVIT software program for 3D modeling
- Electrical Equipment, 5%
Reviewed as-built drawings to confirm the installation of various pieces of electrical equipment and there associated electrical feeders.
- Electrical Systems, 5%
Design electrical systems for in house manufacturing of chemical weighing and batching systems including process instrumentation and programmable controls.
- Autocad Electrical, 5%
Prepare final drawings using AutoCAD 2006/AutoCAD electrical 2006.
- NEC, 4%
Perform Engineering Calculation, Analysis And Design on Transmission, Distribution and Branch Circuit based on PEC, NEC and NFPA.
Most senior electrical designers use their skills in "electrical design," "revit," and "electrical equipment" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential senior electrical designer responsibilities here:
Initiative. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a senior electrical designer to have is initiative. Their role and responsibilities require that "electrical and electronics engineers must apply their knowledge to new tasks in every project they undertake." Senior electrical designers often use initiative in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "led all phases of facility hazwoper projects including environmental hvac upgrades and environmental remediation initiatives. "
Speaking skills. Many senior electrical designer duties rely on speaking skills. "electrical and electronics engineers work closely with other engineers and technicians," so a senior electrical designer will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior electrical designer responsibilities rely on speaking skills: "attended and presented material at design reviews with internal staff as well as customers. "
Writing skills. senior electrical designers are also known for writing skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to senior electrical designer responsibilities, because "electrical and electronics engineers develop technical publications related to equipment they develop, including maintenance manuals, operation manuals, parts lists, product proposals, and design methods documents." A senior electrical designer resume example shows how writing skills is used in the workplace: "developed test fixtures with stepper motors based on arduino boards, writing the firmware in c, and then building them. "
Math skills. senior electrical designer responsibilities often require "math skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "electrical and electronics engineers must use the principles of calculus and other advanced math in order to analyze, design, and troubleshoot equipment." This resume example shows what senior electrical designers do with math skills on a typical day: "developed datapath architecture in verilog implementing booth multiplication, controlled math calculation and other functions and tested it. "
The three companies that hire the most senior electrical designers are:
- Sargent & Lundy27 senior electrical designers jobs
- Smith Seckman Reid10 senior electrical designers jobs
- Burns & McDonnell8 senior electrical designers jobs
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Compare different senior electrical designers
Senior electrical designer vs. Outside plant engineer
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.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior electrical designer responsibilities require skills like "electrical design," "revit," "electrical equipment," and "electrical systems." Meanwhile a typical outside plant engineer has skills in areas such as "cad," "outside plant," "osp," and "fiber optic." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
On average, outside plant engineers reach similar levels of education than senior electrical designers. Outside plant engineers are 1.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior electrical designer vs. Field engineer
A field engineer's role will vary on the industry or line of work involved. However, the primary responsibility will mostly revolve around handling equipment and machinery, ensuring that they function effectively and safely. It is also the task of a field engineer to oversee the workflow and workforce, giving directions and recommendations when necessary. Furthermore, a field engineer must develop strategies and plans to improve the site's efficiency, produce progress reports, and coordinate with other workers.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, senior electrical designer responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "electrical design," "revit," "electrical equipment," and "electrical systems." Meanwhile, a field engineer has duties that require skills in areas such as "customer service," "customer satisfaction," "azure," and "technical support." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, field engineers earn a lower salary than senior electrical designers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, field engineers earn the most pay in the energy industry with an average salary of $83,650. Whereas senior electrical designers have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $90,234.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Field engineers tend to reach similar levels of education than senior electrical designers. In fact, they're 2.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior electrical designer vs. Instrumentation & control engineer
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.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a senior electrical designer is likely to be skilled in "electrical design," "revit," "autocad electrical," and "construction drawings," while a typical instrumentation & control engineer is skilled in "scada," "process control," "autocad," and "start-up."
Instrumentation & control engineers make a very good living in the energy industry with an average annual salary of $98,177. On the other hand, senior electrical designers are paid the highest salary in the manufacturing industry, with average annual pay of $90,234.instrumentation & control engineers typically earn higher educational levels compared to senior electrical designers. Specifically, they're 5.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior electrical designer vs. Domestic engineer
Types of senior electrical designer
Updated January 8, 2025
