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The differences between senior product design engineers and product 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 product engineer. Additionally, a senior product design engineer has an average salary of $102,291, which is higher than the $89,645 average annual salary of a product engineer.
The top three skills for a senior product design engineer include CAD, solidworks and prototype. The most important skills for a product engineer are CAD, product design, and project management.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $102,291 | $89,645 |
| Hourly rate | $49.18 | $43.10 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 175,933 | 157,888 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| 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 product engineer specializes in designing and developing commercial materials and services. They are primarily responsible for conducting thorough research and analysis of the latest trends and marketing conditions to come up with new ideas and products for the public. Moreover, they are also responsible for producing reports and presentations, coordinating with the development team of their company. Product engineers also reach out to vendors and suppliers for the raw materials, set regulations and standards for the product, and even conduct a rigorous and regular quality check.
Senior product design engineers and product engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Average salary | $102,291 | $89,645 |
| Salary range | Between $79,000 And $131,000 | Between $68,000 And $118,000 |
| 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 product engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| 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 product engineers' demographics:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Product Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 94.5% Female, 5.5% | Male, 87.8% Female, 12.2% |
| 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, 3.1% 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% |