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What is a senior product development engineer and how to become one
The senior product development engineer manages direct reports and establishes staffing requirements. He/She acquires necessary resources when needed to complete projects on time and within budget. He/She forecasts project costs and product delivery schedules during the quoting process. Additionally, he/she develops the bills of materials and assembly method. Likewise, he/she provides any needed training to technicians and assemblers and develops products and processes. Asides from that, he/she identifies risks to the project and develops contingency plans.
Employers seek candidates with at least a bachelor's degree in engineering or any related field and a minimum of eight years of related experience. Candidates must be proficient in Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project. The core skills include communication, customer relations, attention to detail, leadership, organization, problem-solving, collaboration, and product development skills. You must be conversant with SolidWorks, design controls, and the likes. These experts earn about $103,593 annually. Their salary is between $81,000 and $133,000.
What general advice would you give to a senior product development engineer?
Julie Brandis
Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships, Website
Avg. Salary $98,348
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 2%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%
Asian 16.54%
Black or African American 3.06%
Hispanic or Latino 7.77%
Unknown 4.51%
White 68.02%
Genderfemale 9.48%
male 90.52%
Age - 39American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 39Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is advanced
7 - challenging
Work life balance is fair
6.4 - fair
Senior product development engineer career paths
Key steps to become a senior product development engineer
Explore senior product development engineer education requirements
Start to develop specific senior product development engineer skills
Skills Percentages CAD 7.20% Solidworks 7.08% Product Development 5.97% Product Design 4.97% Medical Devices 4.72% Complete relevant senior product development engineer training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior product development engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior product development engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior product development engineer resumes.Research senior product development engineer duties and responsibilities
- Manage the manufacturing of defense and aerospace electro-mechanical print circuit boards from prototype to production level.
- Create solid model concepts, mold flow simulations and structural finite element analysis FEA culminating into complete product assemblies using SolidWorks.
- Design PC base units with windows like graphical interface that link to main VME system for monitoring and control.
- Conceptualize and modele new product designs with SolidWorks.
Get senior product development engineer experience
Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior product development engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior product development engineer include product development engineer, project engineer team lead and design engineer.Prepare your senior product development engineer resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior product development engineer resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior product development engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
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Apply for senior product development engineer jobs
Now it's time to start searching for a senior product development engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
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Average senior product development engineer salary
The average senior product development engineer salary in the United States is $98,348 per year or $47 per hour. Senior product development engineer salaries range between $76,000 and $126,000 per year.
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Senior product development engineer reviews
Investigation. I love to dig and dig to find hidden gems of information that can be pivtol to the project.
There is tons of reading involved, not everything is interesting so it can be a bit much to read and analyze what seems like endless information. But I still love it.
Updated January 8, 2025
