Design Engineers use technical knowledge, design skills, and mathematical
expertise to develop innovative solutions to problems. They create the initial
concept, plan, development, and management of projects in a range of sectors.
Design Engineers have strong technical knowledge and problem-solving
abilities as well as communication, leadership, and project management skills.
Depending on the choice of a specialist area, they may also be described as
CAD engineers, consulting engineers, or product design engineers.1
They can find jobs with oil and gas companies, refineries, aerospace and automotive
industries, construction and building, medical engineering, transportation and
highways, and water treatment service.
Design Engineers have a wide range of problems to solve. They may find
themselves working on small solutions to improve efficiency, working on
large equipment that needs to be replaced, or working on ways to make
everyone safer. Design Engineers will design or redesign mechanical and
thermal devices or subsystems using analysis and computer-aided design.
They find failures in systems and recommend solutions. They use a computer
extensively to design and prototype. They create prototypes of devices to
evaluate the effectiveness of a solution and oversee the manufacturing
process for the device. Design Engineers are the point people for issues that
may come up in the day-to-day running of any organization
Design Engineers need a bachelor’s degree in design or mechanical
engineering. They need a strong ability to do common mathematics with
engineering variables. Design Engineers need to be well versed in fluid
dynamics and structural calculations. The coursework is less theoretical
and more practical application. They need to deconstruct more significant
problems into smaller ones and design effective solutions. Design Engineers
need to have excellent listening skills as, they often work on projects with
others and analyze different solutions provided by other experts.