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The differences between senior production engineers and chief engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a senior production engineer, becoming a chief engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a senior production engineer has an average salary of $115,075, which is higher than the $108,050 average annual salary of a chief engineer.
The top three skills for a senior production engineer include continuous improvement, technical support and SR. The most important skills for a chief engineer are HVAC, plumbing, and customer service.
| Senior Production Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $115,075 | $108,050 |
| Hourly rate | $55.32 | $51.95 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 94,542 | 88,473 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 6 |
A senior production engineer supervises and improves plant and factory production. They manage engineering teams, update the manager about various issues, create safety protocols, and draw up strategies to enhance profit and production efficiency. Besides overseeing the production processes and ensuring the engineering teams perform quality work, senior production engineers also work hand-in-hand with other engineers to draw up programs that enhance the required labor, costs, and production. Moreover, these professionals identify, document, and report unsafe practices.
A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes. A chief engineer must have excellent knowledge of the engineering disciplines and exemplary leadership skills to handle the team's performance towards the company's objectives.
Senior production engineers and chief engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Production Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Average salary | $115,075 | $108,050 |
| Salary range | Between $85,000 And $154,000 | Between $65,000 And $177,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Palo Alto, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Ep Energy | BGC Partners |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Transportation |
There are a few differences between a senior production engineer and a chief engineer in terms of educational background:
| Senior Production Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Mechanical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between senior production engineers' and chief engineers' demographics:
| Senior Production Engineer | Chief Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.8% Female, 12.2% | Male, 96.2% Female, 3.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 14.9% White, 66.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 10.2% White, 71.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 5% |