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The differences between senior product design engineers and senior manufacturing engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a senior product design engineer, becoming a senior manufacturing engineer takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a senior product design engineer has an average salary of $102,291, which is higher than the $93,853 average annual salary of a senior manufacturing engineer.
The top three skills for a senior product design engineer include CAD, solidworks and prototype. The most important skills for a senior manufacturing engineer are lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and sigma.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Senior Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $102,291 | $93,853 |
| Hourly rate | $49.18 | $45.12 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 175,933 | 97,154 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Average age | 41 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 2 |
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 Senior Manufacturing Engineer works in a company's production operations and is responsible for developing and improving manufacturing processes. They analyze and propose solutions to engineering problems.
Senior product design engineers and senior manufacturing engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Senior Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Average salary | $102,291 | $93,853 |
| Salary range | Between $79,000 And $131,000 | Between $71,000 And $123,000 |
| Highest paying City | Cupertino, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Mexico | California |
| Best paying company | ||
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Automotive |
There are a few differences between a senior product design engineer and a senior manufacturing engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Senior Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Michigan Technological University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between senior product design engineers' and senior manufacturing engineers' demographics:
| Senior Product Design Engineer | Senior Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Average age | 41 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 94.5% Female, 5.5% | Male, 92.6% Female, 7.4% |
| 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, 4.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 17.1% White, 63.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 5% |