Product Development Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Product Development Engineer develops new products for companies, and participates in all phases of product development including research, design, production and marketing. Uses research on customer demand and industry trends to develop product ideas; builds and tests product prototypes; evaluates production options and costs. May specialize in a particular type of product or in products for a specific industry.

Job Outlook

There were 305 Product Development Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 10307 in the United States.

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

Salary

Many new Product Development 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 $89,018.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $89,283.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Product Development Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $70,554.

Education and Experience

Posted Product Development 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	76.86%
Master's Degree	27.97%
Doctoral Degree	8.65%
Other	2.08%

Posted Product Development 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	25.3%
3 to 5 years	50.89%
6 to 8 years	13.07%
9+ years	10.74%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Product Development 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 (41.84%)
Problem Solving (29.53%)
Management (25.05%)
Leadership (22.99%)
Innovation (20.05%)
Operations (19.64%)
Sales (16.85%)
Writing (14.85%)
Planning (14.76%)
Research (14.32%)

Defining Skills

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

Mechanical Engineering (28.82%)
Project Management (25.77%)
New Product Development (71.27%)

Necessary Skills

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

Materials Science (7.29%)
Supply Chain (10.69%)
Computer-Aided Design (13.38%)
Six Sigma Methodology (7.46%)
Electrical Engineering (16.98%)
Continuous Improvement Process (9.61%)
Medical Devices (9.64%)
3D Modeling (10.47%)
Automation (9.28%)
SolidWorks (CAD) (15.83%)
Technical Support (4.61%)
Python (Programming Language) (9.24%)
Product Lifecycle Management (7.12%)
Product Management (7.96%)
Data Analysis (9.11%)
Test Planning (7.67%)
Manufacturing Engineering (8.33%)
Procurement (5.66%)
Purchasing (7.67%)
Marketing (15.36%)
Process Development (9.2%)
Product Engineering (22.5%)
Manufacturing Processes (18.08%)
Process Improvement (9.8%)
Root Cause Analysis (7.24%)
Prototyping (9.81%)
Product Design (17.89%)
Tooling (8.95%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Mechanical Engineering (62.44%)
Project Management (55.82%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

Product Engineer
Development Engineer
Supplier Development Engineer
Product Development Specialist
New Product Development Engineer
Systems Development Engineer
Principal Engineer
Project Engineer
Test Development Engineer

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 Development Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Ford (310)
Actalent (306)
Intel (267)
Amazon (154)
Johnson & Johnson (147)
Standardaero (106)
Caterpillar (101)
Disability Solutions (100)
Honeywell International (99)
ManpowerGroup (95)

North Carolina

Actalent (14)
Qorvo (10)
Caterpillar (9)
Hitachi (8)
Owens Corning (7)
Raytheon Technologies (6)
Belcan (6)
Newell Brands (6)
Siemens Energy (5)
Ford (4)

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.

Engineering