How To Become A Staff Design Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a staff design engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Craig Johnson Ph.D., P.E.

As a staff design engineer, you will be responsible for supporting engineering design projects. You'll collaborate with consultants, designers, and process, electrical, and mechanical engineers. You will also develop comprehensive system design packages. Likewise, you will prepare and review drawings and designs. This may include plot plans, general arrangement drawings, fabrication drawings, instrumentation diagrams, isometrics, and electrical drawings. Additionally, you will assist with engineering activities as required and ensure compliance with relevant regulations and safety protocols.

To become a staff design engineer, you need at least a bachelor's degree in an engineering field with a minimum of five years of experience in a related role. You must be proficient in Microsoft Office and other industry-specific software applications, such as AutoCAD and Plant 3D. Essential skills include organization, communication, teamwork, and multitasking skills. The salary for this role varies between $116,000 and $175,000. You will earn an average sum of $142,424 annually.

What general advice would you give to a staff design engineer?

Craig Johnson Ph.D., P.E.

Professor Emeritus, Website

To begin your career in our field, please know that there are some shared values, some behavior constraints, and some awesome possible career paths for you to explore! Our program is accredited through ABET, which means that you can acquire your Professional Engineering licensure. Along with licensure are ethics compliance and legal behavior. You must put safety as a first constraint in all work. Create great technical solutions to real problems that may affect us all. Politics and company policies evolve, and we must evolve with them. New finance realities dictate that you will be more active in both seeking new jobs and changing jobs to promote your careers. You are at the center of many crossroads of technical activity that present options for your path forward.

ScoreStaff Design EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.3

Avg. Salary $128,071

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 23.85%

Black or African American 4.37%

Hispanic or Latino 9.75%

Unknown 4.61%

White 57.24%

Gender

female 24.29%

male 75.71%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.2

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a staff design engineer

Explore staff design engineer education requirements

Most common staff design engineer degrees

Bachelor's

66.0 %

Master's

18.8 %

Associate

9.4 %

Start to develop specific staff design engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Architecture	6.34%
RF	5.75%
CAD	5.28%
Synthesis	5.22%
Analog	4.82%

Complete relevant staff design engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New staff design 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 staff design engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real staff design engineer resumes.

Research staff design engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage aspects of commercial architecture projects, develop solutions to problems that arise during construction.
Manage complex resolution of provisioning issues and develop practices and procedures for circuit installation and maintenance.
Design parts and Verilog libraries for PCB system level integration.
Design ASIC base control electronics for an army smart sub-munition (SADARM).

Prepare your staff design engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your staff design 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 staff design engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable staff design engineer resume templates

Build a professional staff design engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your staff design engineer resume.

Apply for staff design engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a staff design 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

How do staff design engineers rate their job?

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Staff design engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Cons

At times software development team questions on hardware design without looking the code running the stuff irritates Must have some knowledge of coding as well