- What do design engineers do?
- Design engineer career path
- Design engineer salaries
- Qualifications and training
- Design engineer skills
- Pros and cons of being a design engineer
- Design engineer work-life balance
- Typical employers hiring design engineers
- Related jobs
- More information
Are you great with detail? Do you love seeing your designs become a fully formed object? If you want to go down a technical but creative career path, a job as a design engineer could be perfect for you.
Are you interested in a career as a design engineer? Explore the engineering sector jobs available right now.
What do design engineers do?
Your job as a design engineer revolves around making new, innovative solutions to engineering problems throughout many sectors - including software, machinery, cars and many other areas. Since it’s such a broad title, you can specialise in an area that interests you throughout your working life. You could work on improving one small element of a system or designing an entirely new system. Here are the tasks associated with design engineers:
- Meeting with clients to discuss a project, what they want to get out of it and any requirements they have for it
- Researching the particular area of interest to see the work that’s already been conducted and how you can fit your work
- Learning about the types of materials that you want to use for the project
- Making designs using specialised software so they are accurate and easy to transfer between colleagues
- Meeting with colleagues and clients to discuss the designs, making sure they work for the intended purpose and include all elements that a client wants
- Making changes to designs based on suggestions or new requirements
- Writing a report or present on your work
- Testing the safety of your designs
- Overseeing the work to make sure it’s to your specification
Design engineer career path
As a design engineer, you typically work for an engineering firm which outsources your work to your clients. You could work for one company specialising in design projects in the type of work they do. Throughout your career, you could decide you like the technical aspect but not the type of work you’re doing and sidestep into another type of engineering, like mechanical or manufacturing. You may decide that you like seeing a project through but not the technical design element and swap to a project management role. If you decide you want to stay in the design engineer career path, here are the roles associated with it:
Entry-level
You begin your career as a junior design engineer. This role is intended to teach you all the practical skills that you need to be a design engineer. With any projects you’re given, your work is checked by your supervisor to make sure you’ve got everything right and it’s to a good standard. You also help senior colleagues with any projects they’re working on, completing administrative tasks or even sometimes design-related tasks.
Career progression
After gaining experience and building up your skills, you move to a mid-level design engineer role. This gives you more responsibility and room to work on your own projects. This job involves meeting with clients, making designs, collaborating with colleagues and team members from different companies on the project, and all manner of other tasks required to make a project happen.
Future career
You reach a senior design manager role once you’ve had many years of experience and a positive track record. You have greater responsibility in this job than others in the career path, working on the highest profile or most complex projects that the firm receives. You have the same tasks as mid-level design engineers but with the added responsibility of training junior colleagues and overseeing the work they do.
You have the option to move into a management position within an engineering firm. This means overseeing the budget for a department, making sure your colleagues are satisfied and working well both on their own work and together, and reporting on the work to senior management teams in the firm. This is often a great opportunity for engineers who want to move away from the design and technical aspect and work with people rather than projects.
Design engineer salaries
The design engineer career path takes you high within an engineering firm. The specific salary that you earn depends on factors like your education and experience, the size of the firm and the geographic location of the firm. Here are the salaries associated with the design engineer career path:
- Entry-level jobs like junior design engineer could earn you between £20,000 and £30,000 per year
- Mid-level design engineers earn between £25,000 and £45,000 per year
- Senior design engineers earn between £40,000 and £55,000 per year
Qualifications and training
Having the right qualifications and training sets you up well to impress any hiring manager. Here is the education and experience that you need to succeed as a design engineer:
Education
Most design engineers have an engineering degree. You could explore the design engineer undergraduate degrees available to you with the UCAS course search tool. A degree teaches you the engineering theoretical and background of the field that you need to succeed in the design engineer career path. If you have a more general engineering degree, you can explore the postgraduate qualifications in design engineering with the same UCAS search tool. Having a master’s degree isn’t usually a requirement of the job but it does give you more specialised skills which can impress hiring managers. Having a course that’s accredited by the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) tells you that the course is great and relevant to the work you’ll do.
An alternative to the traditional degree route is an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships involve learning how to do the job by working with industry experts currently employed in the field. This means you get practical experience and gain specific skills that directly benefit you in the work. You also have the opportunity to network with employees and could get a permanent job from the apprenticeship. If you’re interested in apprenticeships, you can use this government search tool to explore the apprenticeships available to you right now.
Work experience
Alongside your education or apprenticeship, having some work experience helps you gain skills and learn how to work well in the field. Most engineering degrees include some time in industry which means working with an engineering firm on their current projects. Another great way to get work experience is to look into internships. You can explore the engineering sector internships available right now and complete this module on converting an internship into a permanent job.
Design engineer skills
Alongside your great qualifications, having the right skills helps you impress a hiring manager and get your CV on the top of the pile. Here are great skills to have as a design engineer:
Soft skills
- Problem-solving. Your job involves being given a problem that a company faces and designing a solution. This could be anything from designing a specialised part for a machine, to designing a more efficient engine for a car. Being good at problem-solving and having critical thinking skills means you can look at a project and find innovative ways of dealing with the problem.
- Technology. You need to be computer literate and good with IT. Some of your job involves corresponding with colleagues, clients and departments from other companies which requires good IT skills to make online meetings run smoothly. Additionally, you need to know how to use the design software that the firm you work for uses. Having this knowledge sets you up well for the job and means you can get going with your designs quickly.
- Attention to detail. Working as a design engineer means having good attention to detail. You need to consider every part of your design, making sure all the elements are safe and work well. You think about any part of the project that could go wrong and take action to make sure it is successful.
Learn more about skills and attributes you need to get into engineering.
Pros and cons of being a design engineer
Like any career, there are positive and negative factors that impact your working life. Understanding what these are helps you decide if the job is right for you in the long run. Here are the pros and cons of working as a design engineer that you should consider before committing to the career path:
Pros
- It’s a highly creative industry which lets you put your mark on everything you make
- You get to make designs as part of your job which you can see through to a fully formed product. This can be very satisfying
- There are many design engineer jobs because it’s such a required role for many companies
- With increased skills and experience, you could start your own design engineer company and work on the projects that really interest you
Cons
- It is a highly pressured job with lots of deadlines and long working hours
- A significant amount of your job involves working on a computer which is a sedentary lifestyle and can cause eyesight and back problems after years of work
- Keeping up to date with the advances in the industry and knowing everything that’s going on can be difficult alongside your work
Design engineer work-life balance
As a design engineer, you typically work standard office hours of 9am to 5pm. However, with the large workload and short deadlines, working beyond these hours could be standard practice. Maintaining a positive work-life balance can be difficult when you have long working weeks and lots of deadlines to meet. Being a design engineer can be sedentary work requiring a lot of hours in front of a computer. Keeping up with exercise practices and making sure you spend time away from the computer can be tricky with your high workload and long working weeks.
Typical employers hiring design engineers
Design engineers typically work in engineering firms. Here are the typical employers hiring design engineers:
Discover the leading graduate employers in engineering.
Related jobs to design engineer
More information
Are you interested in engineering but not sure about design engineering? Take an in-depth look at the different types of engineering. Do you want to know more? Complete this module on understanding city firms so you know how the top firms work before your interview.