Design Engineer
Career information and advice on being a Design Engineer

The term Design Engineer covers many different industries and disciplines. Some of the fields in which you would find positions are Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Civil and Architectural Engineering.

 A Design Engineer develops and researches ideas for new products and the production systems used to make them. They also work to improve the performance and efficiency of existing designs, equipment or machinery, products and systems. 

Your role as a Design Engineer would be different to that of a designer or a Drafter, because the Design Engineer sets the direction of the design effort.

For example, when dealing with consumer products one would work closely with Marketers and Industrial Designers to develop product concept and specifications.

Design Engineer Functions Include

Functions of a Design Engineer vary depending on the kind of project that you are given.

As a Design Engineer in certain fields you would need to do extensive research in terms of proto-typing and development work. This would require you to use mathematical modeling to work out whether new developments and innovations would be cost effective.

FMEA or mathematical modeling may be used to optimise the design, check for weaknesses and correct as necessary.  This will also assist with reducing material input costs helping new developments and innovations to be cost effective.  It is also extremely important to do this as part of feasibility studies.

Design would also be critical to turn research ideas into technical plans for prototypes using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer assisted engineering (CAE) software.

You would also be required to collect and analyse data from tests of prototypes. Retesting and modifying designs would also be required.  For the Structural Design Engineer you would need to draw on proven building methods and modeling as large scale prototyping is not an option.

Since you would be in charge of certain projects you would be required to write reports and present regular progress to the clients or management.