Manufacturing and Production Careers | Product Engineering Manager

Product Engineering Manager

Career Area: Engineering

Occupation Group: Engineering Managers

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Product Engineering Manager earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $113,452

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $114,491

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Oversees and leads conception, execution and launch of engineering products. Manages communication and coordination among different types of engineers, designers and analysts working on a project. Supervises project schedule, budget, and communications with stakeholders.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

LocationGrowth
North Carolina215+5.1%
Nationwide6014+2.8%

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Product Engineering Manager is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
  • Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
  • Creativity: Mental characteristic that allows a person to think outside of the box, which results in innovative or different approaches to a particular task.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • Product Development: In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market.
  • Engineering Management: Experience organizing, administering, and planning the operational performance of complex engineering driven enterprises.
  • Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
  • Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
  • Software Engineering: Working experience with the application of engineering to the development of software in a systematic method.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Product Engineering Manager that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Systems Engineering: Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design and manage complex systems over their life cycles.
  • Engineering Support: Configuration management is for most of time dealing with the system that is large, complexed, has a long life duration (more than 10 years) and involve more people.
  • Engineering Leadership: Experience providing the technical leadership of change.
  • Lifecycle Management: In industry, product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.
  • Engineering Activities: Working experience of Engineering Activities, which includes all activities or functions of an engineer, invloving the application of science and mathematics to the design, manufacture or maintenance of complex products.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Experience Required%
0 to 2 years5%
3 to 5 years36%
6 to 8 years29%

Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.

Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

  • Engineering Manager
  • Project Engineer
  • Senior Engineering Manager Req - Virtual/Remote
  • Product Engineering Manager
  • Salesforce Engineering Manager

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