Mechanical Engineering Job Statistics Vs. Software Engineering

February 29, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

Mechanical Engineering is an old industry that has been around for awhile, what do Mechanical Engineering Job Statistics look like in 2022?

It’s important to understand the state of the market regarding Mechanical Engineering to get a better sense of how job opportunities will pan out. It’s very obvious that there’s a high supply and demand of engineers for tech jobs, but no one ever covers market info on mechanical engineers. Let’s take a look at some mechanical engineering job statistics and compare that to software engineering job statistics. This is important to know either if you’re in Mechanical Engineering or Software Engineering.

Tech vs. Mechanical Engineering Job Statistics

Mechanical Engineers

Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers (Software Engineers)

Salary of Mechanical Engineers vs. Software Developers / QA Analysts / Testers

Wow, if we look at the statistics above – a quick look shows:

• 2021 Median Pay at $95,300 per year for Mechanical Engineers
• 2020 Median Pay at $110,140 per year for Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers

If you’ve paid attention, you’ll see that this is 2021 vs 2020 salary. Adjusted for inflation, the differential is going to be higher regarding Mechanical Engineering vs. Software Engineering salaries.

Employment Change

WOW!

If we look at the Employment change from 2020-2030 for Mechanical Engineers vs. Software Developers, QA Analysts, & Testers, the employment change differential is HUGE.

20,900 vs. 409,500.

From an employment and job security standpoint, this is really important to understand.

What’s the job market going to look like years from now?

Should Mechanical Engineers start learning how to code in their free time to prepare themselves for the potential job market?

We do recommend being able to program as a Mechanical Engineer to diversify your skillsets and understand helpful programming frameworks that will make Engineering easier overall.

FAANG Software Engineering Jobs

The data we have covered above shows Mechanical Engineering vs. Software Engineering as a whole in the United States, but what about at the top companies.

Currently, the top companies to get into Software Engineering are the FAANG companies, or MAANG

According to Trending US, the salaries they offer are:

• Facebook $180k–$890k
• Amazon $164k–$642K
• Apple $176k – $719k
• Netflix $499k
• Alphabet $191k – $1.02 million

Wow, quite the jump – of course this takes into account base salary + stock options + any forms of additional compensation.

Innovative Mechanical Engineering Companies

Although currently Tech blows Mechanical Engineering out of the water regarding compensation, there is going to be a shift towards the Electric Vehicle (EV) market that Mechanical Engineers will be a large part of.

Let’s take a look at some salaries of Innovative Mechanical Engineering companies.

Big Players in the future of Mechanical Engineering

• Tesla – Estimated Total Pay of $131,836 for Mechanical Engineers per Glassdoor
• Lucid – Estimated Total Pay of $98,053 for Mechanical Engineers per Glassdoor
• Rivian – Estimated Total Pay of $89,640 for Mechanical Engineers per Glassdoor
• SpaceX – Estimated Total Pay of $120,686 for Mechanical Engineer I per Glassdoor
• Blue Origin – Estimated Total Pay of $86,346 for Mechanical Engineer I per Glassdoor

Electric Vehicle (EV) Companies

Pretty wide range of salaries between Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian just for comparing average Mechanical Engineering salaries from Glassdoor. Safe to say that if you want to maximize your compensation, you should look into getting hired at Tesla based on the statistics.

Space Companies

Although there are many aerospace companies, we see SpaceX and Blue Origin as the big players that are going to be driving much of the innovation in the coming years.

It’s interesting to see that there’s approximately a $30K pay differential between the two companies for a Mechanical Engineering I position.

If you’re looking to maximize compensation, get into SpaceX, per the numbers from Glassdoor. (SpaceX is not generally known for the best work-life balance, so keep that into consideration)

Where do we see Mechanical Engineering go in the future?

We’ve covered this before in the future of mechanical engineering. Ultimately, we see the integration of several forms of software engineering embedded into Mechanical Engineering practices.

Mechanical Engineering is a very old and traditional field of engineering. That means that Mechanical Engineers who have been in the industry for awhile still follow traditional forms of doing business. They are very old-fashioned.

A specific instance I see that will change in Mechanical Engineering as the years will go on Mechanical Engineering companies will integrate tech more efficiently. Companies will look to use tech to run more “lean” and to improve profit margins as the years go on. There’s no doubt about that.

Calculations

Currently, in the 2020s, Mechanical Engineers still heavily use Microsoft Excel for calculations. Many people have different ways of doing things, and as a result, managing files such as drawings, presentations, and calculations as a mechanical engineer is difficult.

Mechanical Engineers have to do a lot of calculations such as stress analysis, tolerance stack up analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and more. A common practice in engineering is to use Microsoft Excel for these calculations.

We see more instances of specific software for Mechanical Engineering calculations developed in the future to better perform these calculations.

Cloud Computing

Companies also run engineering software that looks like it was designed in the 1980s. Seriously!

There are also Engineering companies that keep libraries of old drawings. Old drawings with coffee stains that they have yet integrated into a cloud computing server.

A common reoccurrence that is going on in the 2020s is that companies are looking to take things digitally. They are looking to archive and compartmentalize existing legacy information through cloud computing. Cloud computing is here to stay and will be something that the mechanical engineering industry will integrate as the years go by.

Will Mechanical Engineering jobs still be around?

It’s hard to predict huge macroeconomic factors that determine if Mechanical Engineering will still be around.

We believe Mechanical Engineering jobs will still be around, but the number of them won’t be as high, as when machinery innovation was at its peak.

Should I stay in Mechanical Engineering or go into jobs such as Software Engineering?

If you’re looking for a career solely from a compensation standpoint, go into Software Engineering / CS / Tech.

If you’re very interested in Mechanical Engineering, not just for the money, but for the application of the practice, be a Mechanical Engineer. Mechanical Engineers like to work on systems such as cars, motorcycles, and robotics in their spare time. The best mechanical engineers I know all do something related to Mechanical Engineering outside of their day jobs.

The cool thing to do is to get into tech and work at a FAANG company in the 2020s.

It’s going to be interesting to see the emergence of all of the VC funded tech start ups throughout these years – some very cool stuff is ahead to be seen.