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The differences between staff design engineers and system design engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a staff design engineer, becoming a system design engineer takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a staff design engineer has an average salary of $128,071, which is higher than the $107,704 average annual salary of a system design engineer.
The top three skills for a staff design engineer include architecture, RF and CAD. The most important skills for a system design engineer are system design, architecture, and MATLAB.
| Staff Design Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $128,071 | $107,704 |
| Hourly rate | $61.57 | $51.78 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 154,963 | 113,582 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 2 |
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 system design engineer is an individual who participates in system design engineering and resolves manufacturing and service problems. System design engineers are required to collaborate with the system design team to research emerging technologies and develop new capabilities. They create design layouts by utilizing the use of CAD software such as AutoCad as well as supervise a group of CAD technicians. System design engineers must also provide customer service in the field and deliver individualized problem solving and system design support
Staff design engineers and system design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Staff Design Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $128,071 | $107,704 |
| Salary range | Between $89,000 And $182,000 | Between $77,000 And $149,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | HBO | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Automotive |
There are a few differences between a staff design engineer and a system design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Staff Design Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northeastern University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between staff design engineers' and system design engineers' demographics:
| Staff Design Engineer | System Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% |
| 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, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.4% Asian, 15.4% White, 63.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |