Product Engineer Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a product engineer. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a product engineer.
Who is a Product Engineer?
A Product Engineer is a mechanical engineering professional that is responsible for designing commercial products and other manufacturing products. They achieve this by coordinating the product development team to execute concepts into marketable products based on market regulations and industry research. Their work settings are manufacturing plants and corporate offices.
Product engineers may have different areas they specialize in: some may focus on industrial design while others on software development or other technical aspects of product creation. Even though their specialty differs, they have one thing in common which is that they usually formulate something new for people to buy.
An individual that works as a product engineer is often saddled with the responsibility of analyzing design, engineering processes, and details. He or she may utilize various range of testing programs and strategies to aid in designing, manufacturing, and moving products. He or she also works with a team of experts and usually serves as their support system. He also helps with plan coordination and looks for a solution when a challenge or a problem arises.
A product engineer can also work in a monitoring and production data department. He or she can manage a product quality or enhance a product if the need arises. The engineer usually prepares reports and other official documentation processes. A product engineer also interacts with other engineers, sales teams, and manufacturers and he furthermore attends to the needs of customers and suppliers. Sometimes, the product engineer may communicate with the sales team to discover solutions to customer complaints or dissatisfaction with a product.
An individual who works as a product engineer must possess great communication skills and leadership skills too to be successful. He also needs to have an analytical mind to be able to counterfeit the challenges that may face the organization’s product department. A product engineer does not work in isolation and it is paramount for him to possess team spirit to be able to work with other engineers, sales personnel, and professionals in the field.
The requirement to become a product engineer solely depends on the needs and preferences of job recruiters in that locality. Most employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree in the engineering field. Job candidates that have technical or design backgrounds may find it easier to be successful in this career. A good product engineer should also possess marketing ability and a professional attitude to be successful in his or her career.
Product Engineer Job Description
Below are the product engineer job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a product engineer job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The following are the duties and responsibilities of a Product Engineer:
- Conduct and validate various new products and services to ensure effective execution plans
- Help all departments and provide technical assistance according to regulations
- Organize with departments and select appropriate products for various device designs
- Harmonize with suppliers and external vendors and ensure the effectiveness of all programs
- Relate with customers and analyze all customer’s requirements to prepare appropriate strategies
- Relate with the quality team and perform various tests on pre and post-production to resolve all issues
- Aid suppliers and internal processes to set up various quality benchmarks
- Formulate and evaluate all layout reports and facilitate corrective measures if required
- Substantiate and incorporate various initial systems for products
- Formulate training courses and schedules for various fields and services
- Construct various process designs for mechanical equipment
- Install different equipment according to maintenance manuals
- Ready data sheets for various equipment and prepare appropriate plans
- Execute troubleshoot on all products and assist in on-site installation
- Perform market research on competitors’ products to identify opportunities for improvement
- Endeavor with a team to design new products based on market trends, engineering requirements, and customer feedback
- Relate with suppliers regarding product specifications and purchase orders to ensure high-quality standards are met
- Examine market and industry product trends
- Develop rough product designs using sketches and computer software
- Specify product materials and design the product manufacturing process
- Oversee production and ensure that products correspond to market specifications and safety regulations
- Consult with shipping managers and logisticians to determine the cost-effective manufacturing procedures and materials
Qualifications
Education: Most product engineers must possess at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing, or any similar field. Some employers may give preference to candidates who possess a master’s degree in engineering or a similar field.
Training and Experience: Most product engineers acquire the requisite experience during their bachelor’s degree. They get to learn the basics of engineering while enrolling for their bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. They will also receive job training while enrolling for an internship and they will get to harness some specific skills that will help them fit perfectly into the role of a product engineer. They need to have experience in visualizing theoretical models and design ideas.
Certifications and Licenses: Certifications may not be mandatory but product engineers have to renew their licenses over time and they need to possess certifications for them to prove their potency or competency as product engineers.
Skills: they need to possess the following skills: excellent communication skills, outstanding project management skills, creative thinking skills, teamwork, interpersonal skills, and prototype software proficiency.
Essential Skills
They need to possess the following skills and competencies to be successful in the role and they are:
- Creative Thinking: Creative thinking is very essential for product engineers because their job requires them to develop new concepts and come up with unique solutions to challenges. They need to possess an analytical mind for them to construct products and ensure that cost-effective measures are put in place to benefit the company. They can utilize their creative abilities to bring solutions to problems, enhance processes and develop new products. For instance, a product engineer creates office desks that to standing positions via remote control. The construction of remote control involves more money being channeled towards each product and remote control will delay production time. This process will save money during the manufacturing process and enhance the user experience.
- Teamwork: Product engineers need to have teamwork skills to be able to collaborate with product engineers, sales personnel, and other professionals. They need to adapt to working with a team of experts to carry out their duties as expected. For instance, if a product engineer discovers that a battery-powered fan prototype is not working as expected. He or she can consult with other team members to amend the problem.
- Interpersonal Communication: Interpersonal communication is the ability of someone to build a bond or relationship with others. Product engineers need interpersonal skills because they communicate with shipping managers, suppliers, logisticians, cooperate executives, and other engineers who have expertise in the field. For instance, they can build a bond with shipping managers to build market value and how consumers can benefit from it.
- Mathematics: Product engineers need to possess the knowledge of mathematics for them to ascertain the size of the prototype and how it functions effectively. They need to know about topics such as statistics, calculus, and linear algebra. For instance, a product engineer can employ the statistical formula to ascertain the success or failure of a cordless vacuum cleaner.
- Prototype software proficiency: one of the most paramount technical skills product engineers should possess is proficiency with prototype software. Product engineers utilize prototype software programs to design blueprints and 3D prototypes before designing the final product. For instance, product engineers utilize computer-aided design (CAD) software to formulate detailed images of prototype and their parts.
- Project Management: this skill is very paramount because product engineers may work on large projects and they need to supervise the process of a new product. This is also important because it will make the project successful. They can achieve this by managing the project’s timeline, team, and budget.
- Technical Skills: Technical skills are skills that project engineers need to employ because it serves as the base of product engineering and it helps the product engineer to perform his responsibility as expected. Technical skills can be the knowledge of computer programs; software and hardware. It can also include knowledge of mathematics, engineering principles, and other skills that are essential for the job.
How to Become a Product Engineer
- Earn a bachelor’s degree
The first step to becoming a product engineer is to acquire a bachelor’s degree in quality engineering, mechanical engineering, product design engineering, and general engineering. This degree usually takes five years to complete and make sure you enroll in an accredited university. This degree will help you harness some essential skills that will help you to become a successful product engineer.
- Gain the Requisite Experience
Engineering is more of a practical course and you need to gain relevant experience to fit into the role perfectly. Most job recruiters will offer you the role of entry-level product engineer or quality control engineer once you graduate. You need to accept the role for you to have the requisite experience. This position can also help you harness technical and leadership skills that will qualify you for the role of a senior product engineer.
- Get Certified
Get certified in any industry certification, although this is optional it will go a long way to boost your career as an engineer. This will also prove to employers that you are competent for the job because it will make you know diverse industry topics. One great advantage of industry certification is that it can help you obtain knowledge in specialized areas of engineering which can make employers automatically promote you to the role of a senior product engineer.
- Apply for Jobs
Once you have the relevant educational qualification, professional experience, and industry certification necessary for the job, the next step is to apply for open job positions as a product engineer. Make sure you draft your resume, cover letter, and other relevant documents and channel it to the company you want to apply to. Ensure you take out time to read the job description and make sure your skills and expertise match the job description.
Highlight the candidate’s qualities drafted in the job description, and add it to your application in case your employer may use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This is software that most companies use to hire qualified job candidates.
Where Can a Product Engineer Work?
A product engineer can work in the following places:
- Research and Development Laboratories: A product engineer is responsible for the market research and industry development of a product and they can work in the research and development laboratories to initiate a new product and test the product if it will meet industry specifications.
- Companies Factories; They can also work in the manufacturing company and develop a new product that will meet up with industry specifications. This new product can be developed based on the need of society.
Product Engineer Salary
The salary of a Product Engineer varies across countries and below are some examples:
- In the United States, The average product engineer salary in the USA is $93,186 per year or $47.79 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $77,128 per year while most experienced workers make up to $135,000 per year. The average production engineer salary in California is $105,000 per year or $53.85 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $73,125 per year while most experienced workers make up to $171,500 per year.
- In the United Kingdom, The average production engineer salary in the United Kingdom is £35,000 per year or £17.95 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at £30,000 per year while most experienced workers make up to £43,563 per year.
- In Nigeria, The average salary for a Product Engineer is NGN 500,000 per month in Lagos.
- In Canada, The average product engineer salary in Canada is $80,500 per year or $41.28 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $70,000 per year, while most experienced workers make up to $115,000 per year. A Product engineer earns the following salary in some states in Canada and they are: In Albert is $104,679, British Columbia is $97,500, Quebec is $80,000, and Ontario is $80,000.
- In India, The average production engineer salary in India is ₹ 360,000 per year or ₹ 185 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at ₹ 225,000 per year, while most experienced workers make up to ₹ 800,000 per year.