Product Design Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Product Design Engineer is responsible for the complete production of a product from original idea through to fully functioning product. May be responsible for engineering of materials and manufacturing the product. May be responsible for graphic design, ergonomics and aesthetics of the product.

Job Outlook

There were 37 Product Design Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1581 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Industrial Designer industry, which includes the Product Design Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Product Design Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $78,175.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $78,175.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Product Design Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $53,416.

Education and Experience

Posted Product Design Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	75.71%
Master's Degree	25.43%
Doctoral Degree	6.77%
Other	1.01%

Posted Product Design Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	19.88%
3 to 5 years	53.15%
6 to 8 years	19.08%
9+ years	7.89%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Product Design Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (36.31%)
Problem Solving (28.72%)
Innovation (22.71%)
Operations (18.34%)
Management (16.95%)
Leadership (16.95%)
Sales (13.41%)
Reliability (12.78%)
Research (12.46%)
Microsoft Office (12.33%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Computer-Aided Design (29.93%)
3D Modeling (28.96%)
SolidWorks (CAD) (27.67%)
Mechanical Engineering (46.28%)
New Product Development (49.52%)
Prototyping (27.73%)
Product Design (90.76%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Bill Of Materials (10.08%)
Mechanical Design (19.65%)
Industrial Design (14.35%)
Supply Chain (5.17%)
Electrical Engineering (15.26%)
Continuous Improvement Process (4.98%)
AutoCAD (9.89%)
Engineering Support (3.81%)
Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) (4.33%)
Autodesk Inventor (1.87%)
PTC Creo Parametric (7.05%)
Product Lifecycle Management (7.05%)
Electromechanics (7.05%)
Engineering Change Order (3.81%)
Engineering Design Process (11.18%)
Engineering Drawings (5.43%)
Electronics (8.34%)
Design For Manufacturability (12.48%)
Sheet Metal (7.5%)
Tolerance Analysis (15.32%)
Injection Molding (10.21%)
Procurement (3.23%)
Computer Engineering (6.98%)
Failure Mode And Effects Analysis (4.59%)
Marketing (14.09%)
Project Management (16.81%)
Product Engineering (12.8%)
Machining (10.08%)
Manufacturing Processes (21.59%)
Product Lining (4.07%)
Risk Analysis (3.49%)
Production Process (4.65%)
Tooling (13.32%)
Technical Drawing (2.59%)
PTC Creo (CAD Suite) (12.73%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Electrical Product Design (2.71%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Product Design Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Project Engineer
Mechanical Product Design Engineer
Product Design Engineering Intern
New Product Design Engineer
Product Engineer
Product Designer
Engineering Intern
Product Design Intern
Director of Product Design

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Product Design Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Apple (142)
Meta (48)
Actalent (47)
Amazon (42)
Google (35)
Schaeffler Gruppe (25)
Bridgestone Corporation (21)
Itt Industries (21)
Randstad (18)
Tesla (15)

North Carolina

Flexsteel Industries (3)
Tti Floor Care North America (3)
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling (3)
Techtronic Industries Group (2)
Wernerco (2)
Techtronic Industries North America (2)
Johnson Controls (1)
Bradley Professional, A Division Of The Bradley Group (1)
Siemens Energy (1)
Carrier Corporation (1)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

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