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The differences between senior product design engineers 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 product design engineer and a design engineer. Additionally, a senior product design engineer has an average salary of $102,291, which is higher than the $77,134 average annual salary of a design engineer.
The top three skills for a senior product design engineer include CAD, solidworks and prototype. The most important skills for a design engineer are C++, UL, and project management.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $102,291 | $77,134 |
| Hourly rate | $49.18 | $37.08 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 175,933 | 138,173 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
A senior product design engineer oversees system development, developing processes, and methodologies geared at promoting customer satisfaction. They are charged with analyzing and directing recommendations for resolving problems to fulfill client expectations. Their responsibilities include planning projects, conducting standard functional analysis of products to translate customer specification into product performance criteria, conducting benchmarking studies, and analyzing products' market performance to facilitate competitive delivery of designs.
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 product design engineers and design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $102,291 | $77,134 |
| Salary range | Between $79,000 And $131,000 | Between $57,000 And $102,000 |
| Highest paying City | Cupertino, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Mexico | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Technology |
There are a few differences between a senior product design engineer and a design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between senior product design engineers' and design engineers' demographics:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 94.5% Female, 5.5% | Male, 88.9% Female, 11.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 15.4% White, 67.9% 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% |