Learning about the automation engineer

The Control Engineering 2019 Career & Salary Study took a deep dive into the earnings of today’s automation engineering professionals (see the report from May 2019). Below are background information findings from this study as they relate to these professionals:

1. Experience: The average automation engineering professional has worked in their industry for 27 years, has worked for their current employer for 16 years, and is 54 years old; only 14% are under the age of 40 and 25% are in their 60’s.
2. Education: Fourteen percent of automation engineering professionals have earned an associate’s degree as their highest form of education; 47% have achieved their bachelor’s degree, 16% have a master’s degree, and 3% have a doctoral degree. The top disciplines studied by these professionals are electrical or electronic engineering (49%), controls engineering (25%) and mechanical engineering (25%).
3. Management role: Automation engineering professionals reported an average of 374 employees at their location, with 41% claiming fewer than 100 and 17% stating 1,000 or more. Fifty-eight percent of these professionals are responsible for managing or supervising one or more employees; the average number of employees managed/supervised is 10.
4. Attitude: When asked how they feel about their current job, 48% of automation engineering professionals said they love going to work every day, 40% are content and glad to have a job, 10% find their job tolerable but are open to new opportunities, and 2% are actively seeking new positions.

Access more career and salary trends at www.controleng.com/research. Amanda Pelliccione is the research director at CFE Media and Technology.

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