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Senior product development engineer vs product development engineer

The differences between senior product development engineers and product development 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 development engineer and a product development engineer. Additionally, a senior product development engineer has an average salary of $98,348, which is higher than the $86,075 average annual salary of a product development engineer.

The top three skills for a senior product development engineer include CAD, solidworks and product development. The most important skills for a product development engineer are CAD, solidworks, and product development.

Senior product development engineer vs product development engineer overview

Senior Product Development EngineerProduct Development Engineer
Yearly salary$98,348$86,075
Hourly rate$47.28$41.38
Growth rate2%2%
Number of jobs195,294202,155
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age4141
Years of experience66

What does a senior product development engineer do?

A product development engineer designs and develops new products in adherence to project goals and guidelines. They primarily perform research and assessments to identify and understand project requirements, select materials, develop drafts, create blueprints and prototypes, establish test structures for quality assurance, and facilitate upgrades as necessary. They can also produce product specifications and provide technical support to staff as necessary. Most product development engineers work in a team environment, which requires an open communication line for an efficient workflow.

What does a product development engineer do?

A Product Development Engineer is responsible for creating and testing new product designs. They collaborate with market researchers to evaluate market needs, existing competition, and potential costs.

Senior product development engineer vs product development engineer salary

Senior product development engineers and product development engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Product Development EngineerProduct Development Engineer
Average salary$98,348$86,075
Salary rangeBetween $76,000 And $126,000Between $64,000 And $113,000
Highest paying CitySunnyvale, CASunnyvale, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyAmazonAmazon
Best paying industryFinanceTechnology

Differences between senior product development engineer and product development engineer education

There are a few differences between a senior product development engineer and a product development engineer in terms of educational background:

Senior Product Development EngineerProduct Development Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common majorMechanical EngineeringMechanical Engineering
Most common collegeNorthwestern UniversityMichigan Technological University

Senior product development engineer vs product development engineer demographics

Here are the differences between senior product development engineers' and product development engineers' demographics:

Senior Product Development EngineerProduct Development Engineer
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 90.5% Female, 9.5%Male, 86.8% Female, 13.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.5% White, 68.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 16.7% White, 67.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage5%5%

Differences between senior product development engineer and product development engineer duties and responsibilities

Senior product development engineer example 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.
  • Design and fabrication of fixtures and tooling for testing of prototype and production electronic manual transmissions and individual sub-component assemblies.
  • Develop testing procedures and processes to troubleshoot and eliminate problems in production, increasing efficiency and reducing product rework.

Product development engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage design control including FMEA risk analysis, surgeon clinical input documentation, design verification and validation activities.
  • Manage project from conceptual design through final debugging and animal/clinical testing resulting in a new business unit within the company.
  • Create java test template design to vary equation specs and loop pattern bursts.
  • Develop and maintain websites in HTML, CSS and JAVA script by writing, debugging, and testing.
  • Set up, troubleshot and maintain the Linux and Unix machines used in the development, build and test of ADINA.
  • Participate in engineering DFMEA activities.
  • Show more

Senior product development engineer vs product development engineer skills

Common senior product development engineer skills
  • CAD, 7%
  • Solidworks, 7%
  • Product Development, 6%
  • Product Design, 5%
  • Medical Devices, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
Common product development engineer skills
  • CAD, 6%
  • Solidworks, 5%
  • Product Development, 5%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • Data Analysis, 4%
  • Product Design, 4%

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