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The differences between telecom engineers and staff 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 telecom engineer and a staff design engineer. Additionally, a staff design engineer has an average salary of $128,071, which is higher than the $81,384 average annual salary of a telecom engineer.
The top three skills for a telecom engineer include voip, telephony and telecommunication. The most important skills for a staff design engineer are architecture, RF, and CAD.
| Telecom Engineer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $81,384 | $128,071 |
| Hourly rate | $39.13 | $61.57 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 33,530 | 154,963 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
Telecom engineers are engineering experts who design and install telecommunication equipment to ensure the transmission of high-quality data over wired or wireless communication. Due to their in-depth understanding of emerging technologies, these engineers are required to create solution designs such as drawings and design documents as well as offer guidance to reduce complexity and costs. They must identify and resolve any issues related to fiber optics and copper cables while setting up system monitoring to reduce equipment failure and incident response time. Telecom engineers are also required to operate and improve the telephony systems.
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.
Telecom engineers and staff design engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Telecom Engineer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Average salary | $81,384 | $128,071 |
| Salary range | Between $63,000 And $104,000 | Between $89,000 And $182,000 |
| Highest paying City | Hayward, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | California |
| Best paying company | PayPal | HBO |
| Best paying industry | Telecommunication | Technology |
There are a few differences between a telecom engineer and a staff design engineer in terms of educational background:
| Telecom Engineer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 67% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northeastern University | Northeastern University |
Here are the differences between telecom engineers' and staff design engineers' demographics:
| Telecom Engineer | Staff Design Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 86.2% Female, 13.8% | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.3% Asian, 14.6% White, 64.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |