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The differences between staff design engineers and design 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 staff design engineer and a design engineer. Additionally, a staff design engineer has an average salary of $128,071, which is higher than the $77,134 average annual salary of a design engineer.
The top three skills for a staff design engineer include architecture, RF and CAD. The most important skills for a design engineer are C++, UL, and project management.
| Staff Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $128,071 | $77,134 |
| Hourly rate | $61.57 | $37.08 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 154,963 | 138,173 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 45 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
Staff design engineers are tasked to assess the efficiency of instruments, technologies, and equipment by collaborating with the engineering team to plan, design, and develop technologies efficiently. Their responsibilities include building and setting up, as wells as improving systems and procedures. They should possess strong attention to detail, good visual and spatial awareness, creativity, problem-solving, excellent verbal, written, and project management skills, and strong mathematical and IT skills to become efficient and effective staff design engineers.
A design engineer is responsible for creating systems and applications based on their expertise. Design engineers work through client specifications based on business needs. A design engineer also provides recommendations on improving existing systems to boost its performance and increase efficiency. Design engineers must have an excellent command of computer systems, programming codes, and technical data to ensure the system's stability and high-quality processes. A design engineer should also have strong analytical and time-management skills to perform tasks and meet deadlines.
Staff design engineers and design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Staff Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $128,071 | $77,134 |
| Salary range | Between $89,000 And $182,000 | Between $57,000 And $102,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | HBO | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a staff design engineer and a design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Staff Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northeastern University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between staff design engineers' and design engineers' demographics:
| Staff Design Engineer | Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% | Male, 88.9% Female, 11.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 23.8% White, 57.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian, 16.8% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 5% |