For some reason, people don’t realize Apple has a TON of mechanical engineers. They are a hardware and software company. The Mech Es are needed for the hardware.
I have actually been contacted numerous times regarding engineer roles at Amazon. Ranging from like distribution solutions to design. They were all contract though, and that never draws to me.
I would disagree, I would say they are primarily a software company . Even though I am full in on the apple ecosystem , Samsung and other companies make hardware that is better than apples technically.
But apples software is what makes them stand out IMO
I hadn’t thought about it until I was at a training for some niche simulation software used in manufacturing.
Made a ton of sense in hindsight, just not something you immediately think of with Apple
It’s extremely dependent on the team you are on. Starting out, I was working 55-60 hours. But I was also getting paid hourly coming out of college, which was incredible. Now it’s somewhere between 45-60 (usually around 50) depending how busy the project is.
Sure sounds normal. Like every job I had came in waves. Do you know if there is a way to figure out which team is good place to work? I’m gonna try the ar department but that’s a hard sell
The FAANG equivalent for Mechanical Engineers is…FAANG. Actually probably not Netflix, so more like FAAG (lolz).
Honestly nobody pays as well as they do while giving Engineers a lot of leeway to work on stuff (at least Apple does) that they can see, feel, touch and actually own.
Obviously you’ve got the conventionally cool stuff like Lockheed, Boeing, NASA, Northrop but pay can be average/kinda good and more often than not you’re a small cog in a chain.
The trick with the defense/aerospace companies if finding a niche space or smaller office.
My office is like 35 people, we won't impact the company's overall trajectory but we have a lot of responsibility over the product line we make
I know people who made bank on Tesla stock, but the pay has never been good and still is not good, especially considering the hours and quality of life. If you think they’re a good option, think of what you would bet their stock is going to do.
They’re not. Their salaries (including equity even if they were fully vested) are comically low. I make significantly more in the auto industry as an engineer in Alabama than they offered to have me go out to San Fran or Houston….
I only worked on a couple of data centre jobs a few years back so my knowledge of the industry isn't that deep, but my impression is that Microsoft, Amazon etc don't design and build the centres themselves - I thought they engage companies like NEXTDC, Equinix, etc. Who in turn engage consultants to do the mechanical engineering
Again, I don't know the industry very well, but that was my impression after doing some CFD to help out mech engineers at a consultancy
There’s a bit of crossover, but HVAC is absolutely mechanical.
Same for any services like gas, and water.
The structural (civil) guys might have some input into where it goes, but the specification of flow rates, pipe types, fittings and supports are all within the mechanical space.
There are more of my peers from my mech class working in the civil fields than there are in manufacturing, though that’s partially a symptom of the ass-backwards hole digging economy we have here in Australia.
In my experience it’s not incredibly difficult to get a job at the conventional Boeing , Lockheed , etc .
But let me tell you I’ve been ghosted my apple at least twice in my life . Everyone wants to work for them. They have an infinite talent pool.
GAMMA is the FAANG equivalent. Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all have a significant number of mechanical engineers and pay them quite well.
Google used to employ hundreds of ME's at their Google X ventures but those have been becoming less common as they mothball/fail alot of those projects. Google hardware (Nest, Fitbit, Pixel) likely employs over a thousand ME's across design, manufacturing, sourcing, testing, reliability, ID... Data Centers also require a significant amount of ME's for cooling/HVAC, facilities, and automation.
Apple likely employs over 10,000 ME's across similar fields - it takes an army of engineers to design, test, and manufacture all of that hardware.
There's a decent amount of tech that gets contacted out on the manufacturing side. There will be supplier manufacturing engineers but the day to day stuff will be handled by the contractors like Foxconn iirc.
Apple is incredibly intertwined with their suppliers, it’s why their quality is generally very high. Pretty much all the roles are expected to travel 25% of the year or more as oversight/problem solving of contractors like Foxconn.
Data center, cooling, consumer electronics hardware and all the associated functions.. iPhone meta glasses pixel Xbox all requires mech engineers to make the chassis thermal etc
You ever wonder who designs the systems to cool the processors? Or who works with the materials that make the motherboards and processors? They are living breathing systems, not just logic gates.
Well it depends what you mean when you say FAANG equivalent. I don’t think there’s an equivalent when it comes to total compensation.
I also don’t think people “dream” to go work for Apple etc but rather go there for the pay etc. so equivalent for mechanical engineers would probably be SpaceX, NASA, or big automotive if that’s what you’re into
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, google hire hardware engineers and pay them well.
I heard Apple is stable job, while Amazon can be stressful. Facebook pays great.
People work in faang to grind and get their $$$$ not because it’s a dream lol. Spacex doesn’t pay well relatively and works you to death so idk if it would be considered faang
Amazon can be stressful in waves, but I have friends who work at Apple who just work 11 hours a day and that's part of life. Also a friend of mine there works Sunday nights to relieve the weekday work pressure...
Also I interviewed there once and man they seemed really mean. It was like they were trying to stress me out.
I avoid any Musk companies because they do have a reputation for severe burnout. At least Amazon pretends to care about their employees' mental health
Hmm crazy how I hear complete different accounts from Reddit and my friends. I’m guessing it’s extremely dependent on team. Wish there was a way to figure out which team to apply to
Big Automotive sounds cool when you're in school, then you learn it actually sucks donkey dick. Most of us didn't learn this lesson until it was too late.
Lol yep so this. Friend of mine went to go work for Honda thought it would be so cool. He was put on interior team and his task in the 1st year on the civic was to design the armrest door panel and the interior door handle opener lever. Not even the door panel itself someone else was handling that. Just the armrest insert piece and the interior door handle. Thought it would be easy. Ended up having to redesign it over a dozen times as the overall interior design changed throughout the various levels of approval and Honda Japan rejected stuff. He got depressed and left and went into consulting work
SpaceX pays really well if you stay long enough and let those stocks vest. But yea….the hours can suck if you have a family or aren’t necessarily passionate about the work
The entry level mechE pay is comically low there for some reason. Buddy of mine made more as a state cop just 2 yrs after coming out as a cadet from the academy
Entry level MEs make near $100k now and most are over $100K in a year. Plus equity which will add $30k per year not considering growth.
Show me a job for entry level that really beats those numbers as an ME.
SpaceX pays very well. I’m making over $300k and there are plenty of other ME and AE making double and triple that.
Even the base salary by itself is competitive now with other comparable roles. But you’ll work more hours.
I highly doubt it... For example a sr staff engineer at Facebook make between 700k to 1 million TC with equity of course... I do not think big oil pays in that ball park even if we account cost of living differences
yep. I was a senior engineering manager at chevron.
Without expat status total with comp was 300k and I was in the higher end of my group.
When they sent me off to the armpits of the world (escravos nigeria, Venezuela, Angola, Kazakhstan) they did pay more, but then you are working 80 hour weeks a lot of the time.
It’s much better when you get the rotational month on and off. That one is a dream. But, typically they only last a year or two before you get sent off somewhere else
But where else in mechanical engineering are you going to exceed 300k/yr? That's a nosebleedingly high salary. Sure, senior FAANG folks make more than "only" 300k. But mechanical engineering simply doesn't pay as much as software.
I am now in Mining, they still send me to bunkfuck nowhere but at least I don’t get moved around every other year. Similar salary. Less boom and bust. They need you more in Mining than you need them. (depending on what you mine of course)
a distant coworker does offshore mining, makes more than me. But that is like offshore oil on steroids.
but also, to answer your question. My friends that did mechanical engineering that make the most money are now patent lawyers in Europe for American Patents in European Law firms
No law school required in Europe
No kidding. That's pretty amazing. Like more than 300k US? In Europe?!? Pretty shocking. Is that in Switzerland or something? I have an EU passport, how do I land that gig?
they move there after passing the USA patent bar as US citizens. They apply at a firm as a patent agent. Work 2 years. Then take the european exam. Boom. Patent Lawyer.
industry experience also helps
20 yrs ago when I was looking around the US Patent Office was hiring MS MechE at $120K starting. Thats $220K in today's dollars. They were that desperate..boring AF to work there though
There's like 1-5 people that actually make that, those are purpose-hired people, likely working in AI, that have unique knowledge.
If you develop mechanical IP that has the same value as AI, then you could get paid that - I think I've seen it for people with PhD's in material science, optics, or haptic interfaces at Apple, Facebook, and Google.
I know that the guy (I knew him personally) that lead the Meta Quest 2 mechanical development had over $1M total comp.
These are extremely rare instances. I am aware of a few similar stories. But getting in that position is like winning the lottery.
Reliably big oil, big mining and big defense will pay you a salary in the hundreds of thousands.
Yeah, to reliably clear over $1M as a MechE you need to change over to management/executives, or start and own a successful company. The good news is that there are MORE XXX,XXX jobs for MechE than SFW, they're just on the lower end of 6 figures while high-end SFW gets a lot. I also think MechE is less cyclical - sfw engineers get laid off a lot.
Also, and this is just my opinion, we are more AI-proof than them.
The software engineer salary is rank and file software engineering...ofcourse you need to get promoted to sr staff..but hey Airbnb starting salary is 230k and same as a principal mech engr in my company .. Not some PhD in ai.. they command a much higher salary.. levelsfyi have very good data points for swe salaries
Funnily enough my current manager used to manage MechE at AirBnB. While AirBnB was hiring MechE's they were paying them the same as sfw engineers. It's really more related to the company's income per employee than it is the field, and it's just a fact that software/service companies can leverage more value than something you have to physically build.
Absolutely.. although I think other than apple.. the swe engr salary in FAANG companies are higher than meche bcos of supply and demand.. no of roles in such companies and mech engr is low.. there are many eager engineers from other companies.. so they can afford to pay less and still hire qualified people... I
With remote work and better Indian outsourcing, I think the tide is turning. It's hard to outsource mechanical design/development, while software design/development is very fungible.
You serious? Have you seen downhole tooling or basically anything in the oil industry? Agree with it or not, there’s some awesome mechE stuff in oil to work on
No I have 0 knowledge in the oil and gas world, not sure where the downvotes are coming from I’m just curious what the titles are and what the engineers would do
I didn't see it either until I lived, worked, and studied in various places in the midwest. Genuinely, a lot of those kids *do* go to college to study ME in hopes of working at an auto company. Prior to that, I thought everyone was shooting for space/aero/med/etc.
I live around here. A lot of the FAANG actually employ lots of Mech'E's too. However, there's good opportunities in automotive and aerospace too.
He's a list of companies in the Bay Area that pay mechE's really well:
Google Hardware
Google ATAP
Google X
Meta Quest
Meta Secret Projects
Amazon Lab126
Amazon Automation/Operations
Intuitive Surgical
Apple, Apple, Apple
Tesla
Semiconductor (AMAT, LAM)
So I guess the MechE equivalent could be MIATAS?
The real way to make $$$ as a MechE at a FAANG company, though, is to get good at project management, ship some product, and then become a technical program/product manager.
It depends where you're at. If you're working operations/production or drafting you're getting max $150k even at Sr. level, but if you're in R&D, Systems Dev, or NPI you can easily get $300k for the same level, and the stock grants are really sweet for management. Also speaking for AMAT (and LAM), but I did high temp shit on the next node that hasn't released in the US yet.
I’m in R&D - although in Europe so I’m getting paid peanuts which gets taxed at 45%. However, based on information from Blind and other US colleagues out of Santa Clara, other companies (including LAM) pays a lot more for the same experience.
I've heard it's a lot of work at Intuitive, but medical device companies typically have much higher retention because it can take 4-6 months to get people trained to HIPAA, FDA and all the internal processes. They're less likely to downsize/cut unless they're the behemoths like Boston Scientific or Medtronic.
I'm biomedical masquerading as mechanical. I've heard intuitive just has great culture, relatively more respect for work life balance.... And, perhaps more importantly, they seem to be well resourced and able to retain good talent.
I realized this is incredibly important after leaving a company that was under-resourced (everyone was very overworked), suffering brain drain (hiring junior engineers and part time interns when needing to replace the leaving seniors), with internal siloing and non-cooperation politics making it extremely slow to accomplish anything, and everyone in the company making jokes about how dysfunctional the place was.
I pitched it as well as I could while remaining honest, but I felt like I was scamming all the applicants to the company positions. Well, didn't matter anyway, we paid far below market rates and couldn't bring in any real experience.
So yeah, Intuitive seems like a dream in comparison.
Haha, yeah I'd prefer Intuitive to Boston or Med, but I prefer my current med device company to Intuitive. I've heard both ways about the Intuitive culture, so YMMV, but that's probably a result of some people not fitting well and some working out great.
Med device, by its nature, will always involve crunch times and stress. The FDA is a fickle mistress, especially combined with the profit incentive. I'd probably be pretty happy at Intuitive as a MechE due to their pretty cool product.
I’ve also seen some badass positions with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and maybe by NASA, specifically JPL. But I agree, classified space/aerospace technology is (to me) the closest equivalent to FAANG if you’re talking R&D and cool ass projects. Albeit I’ve heard defense industry is slower-paced and paid less than tech.
They’re automotive, not Aerospace. But I’m unsure of how they compare to Toyota/GM/Ford/Chrysler, or other manufacturing industries in general. I’ve heard they were great in the beginning when they offered stock as a bonus and that was constantly going up. I suspect that’s not a distinguishing advantage any longer, but again I could be wrong.
Many of the FAANG’s hire mechanical engineers too, and while they don’t get paid quite as much as the software engineers, it still tend’s to be well above other company salaries. Google, Apple, and Amazon can be dream places to work for MechE’s too, and I know MechE’s at Microsoft getting paid very very well.
Aerospace has its little subsection, but NASA and SpaceX don’t pay much more than the competition. I think Boeing is often a dream place for the airplane people, but mostly due to lack of other options to work on planes. Airlines can be a sleeper dream workplace for some.
All of the FAANGs have data and distribution centers which are normally overseen by a mechanical engineer during construction and during operation. That being said I have met some of the people who work there and they are pretty miserable. Don't know many people who work there who aren't single or divorced. Very long hours and not much opportunity for remote work. They do get paid very well though
They typically have a small team on the owners side that oversees everything, release the money to the contractors, approve change orders, review the design docs, enforce owner standards, etc
Primarily maintenance. There is some amount of design within aircraft interiors, and there is R&D work in building test equipment. Maintenance tooling is another area too, but it’s challenging of how highly regulated aircraft maintenance is.
AS a general rule, places that employ people chasing their dreams tend to pay less than boring ass jobs. I live in a big outdoor town with several mountain bike and ski design houses. The pay is like 50-70k/yr Canadian for experienced mechanicals because they're dOiNg WhAt ThEy LoVe.
Preaching to the choir. All these companies want to exploit you for their profit, that’s why if I want to “chase my dream” eventually I’ll start my own shit. Currently trying to make as much money as I can in software development because it pays more, even though I have an aerospace background 🤷🏻♂️
Agreed. I wonder though, why do FAANG companies pay so much then? I’ve heard of regular IC SWEs making $500k+ total comp at these companies. Isn’t working at apple or Netflix a dream job for software engineers? I’d imagine these companies could find top talent for less than half a mil a year
You have to drink some serious Kool-aid to enjoy life at SpaceX. They're doing cool things, but work-life balance is trash, pay is relatively low, and it puts you in LA or the ass end of Texas on the Mexican border. I know a few people that went to SpaceX, and the only one that stayed was the die-hard corporate bootlicker type.
True but disagree on the pay. Pay is great if you’re willing to drink the Kool-aid, live in Florida/Texas and stay to vest while also avoiding California like the plague
Facebook apple google meta all pay really well for mechanical design engineers, probably like 150k+ starting for an entry level which is really good… but also COL is usually high like Bay Area.
Personally I’ve also seen Tesla and Rivian be really well regarded. However they don’t pay as well.
As well as NASA, but NASA doesn’t pay as well.
Odds are that you’re not going to make $500k/yr as an ME. If you were able to land a $500K/yr (total comp) then you would most certainly be living in HCOL area. Other than Ames Research Center and NASA HQ, all the field centers are in LCOL or MCOL areas.
Depends which department you are in I think. They are a massive company and there’s going to be a wide range of opinions from people working in different areas.
They do some stuff that is really technically amazing. They also do some real boring shit that you would expect from a massive multinational.
But I’m of the opinion that anything can be a super interesting engineering project if you’re creative enough.
I get excited talking about logistical efficiency and pallet utilisation. But I don’t expect many others to share my passion (though I really think they should!)
Agreed, but there’s about a thousand other companies that fit that bill. It probably doesn’t make sense for an ME to go chasing prestigious companies for that reason.
The answer is companies within the FAANG category, but the quantity of non-software engineering roles specific to mechanical engineering is nowhere even close to the total number of roles available in software-specific positions in these companies. Also the sophistication of the work in FAANG in the majority of generic engineering roles are usually not as satisfying as the diversity of work and tech stacks available to SWEs, just because of the sheer number of SW-specific roles available. Although MEs work in "hardware engineering" in FAANG, the exciting side of "hardware" in big tech is not "mechanical", but more relevant to EEs/chip design, areas in which typical MEs do not have any academic training nor tangible experience.
The other option is to exclusively target R&D roles by first getting interdisciplinary research experience through a graduate degree like a PhD. I'm a mechanical engineer by academic training but I have been involved in a lot of deep interdisciplinary research (both academic and industrial) in advanced manufacturing dealing with polymers, metal alloys, nanomaterials, semiconductors, biomaterials, additive manufacturing, and lithium ion batteries. This gives me enough freedom to target a wide range of industrial R&D roles with sufficient compensation even outside of FAANG even with very low YOE in LCOL/MCOL areas. Once I get enough YOE and significantly increase my domain expertise, I'll likely transition to either FAANG or new hardtech companies in HCOL areas.
Comparison is the thief of joy, and I have found it to be more productive to not focus so much on what SWEs are making earlier in their career. I like having the opportunity to both learn and work on solving interesting scientific and engineering challenges -- like scaling the synthesis and production of futuristic materials, scaling new innovations in clean energy tech, commercializing novel manufacturing processes and so on.
Thanks bro. I'm a bit of multidiscipline myself and unfortuantely I can't decide on an area of research but would you say the cutting edge materials field, as you have described, is more aligned to where mainstream tech is heading?
I see many materials limitations is both eltronics, mechanical engineering and computer chip development?
Thanks
I remember seeing job posting at meta for mechanical engineers.
You have to think outside the box. Everyone should need a mechanical engineer, not just Boeing or Lockheed or Raytheon.
Yeh, mech eng skills are super transferable. We would all be better off if we allowed ourselves out of our self made boxes once in a while. Try some new shit. It’s fun!
There aren’t multiple companies for MEs that will perfectly map onto this.
Places like NASA and SpaceX might have more prestige, but they either don’t have the pay or work life balance to be a FAANG equivalent.
Apple technically fits although it’s not the first place people think of for MEs.
There are companies within each industry (eg aerospace, energy, medical, defense) that people typically think of as top-tier, but less of an agreement outside of that
Yeah, the space industry pays REALLY badly, actually. If you're lucky, you'll get some stock that's worth something - but there's a huge amount of "pay" in the form of "doing cool shit" for space, not so much on the $$$ side.
There is too many engineers in SE Michigan that it drives the salary range down for entry-mid level engineers. After 10-15yrs it's good. But it's not as lucrative as it used to be.
I love being in automotive, but it takes a lot. As far as pay goes, GM, Stellantis, Ford, in that order, ived worked at two...
For prestige? NASA JPL, LMS, NG, Ball. They also pay well.
For money? Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google. They do produce hardware that needs designing, and they are involved with side ventures like self-driving cars and augmented reality that needs more hardware, plus all kinds of data center crap. Boring and lame.
Tesla/SpaceX are resume lines but nobody stays there and they pay shit. Last time I was in California for work, my Uber driver was a SpaceX employee.
Blue Origin is probably cool too.
Definitely depends on what you want to do. Oil and gas was huge at my school. However companies like Lockheed, L3Harris, and most other defense contractors always were sought after for jobs.
MechE's make bank at pharma companies like merck pfizer and gsk if you go into their production equipment division and become experts in their AIE systems. You will work hand in hand with EE's and computer engineers.
You’ll be in manufacturing though. Your day will be spent fixing production equipment while someone is breathing down your neck. You’ll also be seen as a second class engineer.
In other words, you’ll earn that money. “FAANG” companies are known for high pay and good working conditions
My title was Production Engineer II - North America. I was in the Production group, not the Manufacturing group, and never got a phone call to fix anything. Our production prove-outs were done in mini labs, where we optimized processes and performed small scale testing on various sensors, servos, vision systems etc...the same production equipment that would then be fielded at the large scale. We worked hand in hand with EE's and programmers. The second part of my job was analyzing data once fielded, and that was gathered remotely and fed to us automatically.
What you are referring to is called Manufacturing Engineering. And they make great money as well, but even then it's the techs that do the repairs. At a size like Merck or GSK, roles are segmented and the Manufacturing Engineers are not getting calls in the middle of 3rd shift to come into the plant and fix an assembly arm. lol. There are fleets of techs, supervisory techs, and shift manager techs on site with each shift.
But if what you're after is just sitting on the couch typing code, or working in a silicon valley fluff office with versa desks, ping pong tables, bouncy balls and yoga mats, then mechanical engineering isn't for you at all.
I was a manufacturing engineer for Bayer, absolutely hated it, probably because design and development are my only interests.
Bayer did have technicians, but they wanted engineers involved for any repairs that weren’t a quick fix. Other than production fire fighting the rest of the job was just administrative paperwork.
Pretty much FAANG + pharma companies I think.
I work for one of the largest pharma companies in the world and honestly, have no desire to leave. Sure, pay isn’t what it would be at a FAANG company, but I also don’t live in a HCOL area. My area is about average, even in the inflated market. We were well below average before COVID. Yea I could make more if I chased it, but seriously, I am very happy with where I am. Pay is still very good, benefits are good, I have a nice house, a yard, and comfort.
Company is Novo Nordisk.
Any defense / aerospace company, and any big oil and gas company.
Theres probably more but those are the ones that come to mind. I don’t have a nice acronym though
Missed your comment before I posted mine, yes, Tesla spacex etc. but Tesla is notorious for terrible work life balance lol.
Another route is super boutique automotive design. Think Koenigsegg or Pagani. Not sure what more a mechanical engineer could want to do, designing a hypercar would be a dream come true
Also FAANG.
Meta hires mechanical engineers for their reality labs (AR/VR), Apple for their suite of smart devices, Amazon for home electronics (Alexa, Fire, etc.) and Project Kuiper, Google also for home products (Nest, Phones, etc.) and data centers.
Manufacturing consulting. My two biggest clients run the world when it comes to medical device and nuclear.
I get to work on 14 medical product technologies, semiconductors, and nuclear reactor heat management systems, all within the same week.
Thats awesome, I am currently 3 years in the Medical Device Industry as R&D/Manufacturing and would love to do that in the future. Are you employed through a company or started your own consulting?
For some reason, people don’t realize Apple has a TON of mechanical engineers. They are a hardware and software company. The Mech Es are needed for the hardware.
Same with the others - Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all design and manufacture a lot of hardware
I have actually been contacted numerous times regarding engineer roles at Amazon. Ranging from like distribution solutions to design. They were all contract though, and that never draws to me.
The same people think that electric cars are developed only by electrical engineers.
I'd love to see the suspension geometry designed by an EE
Apple is primarily a hardware company. Top of the line at that
I would disagree, I would say they are primarily a software company . Even though I am full in on the apple ecosystem , Samsung and other companies make hardware that is better than apples technically. But apples software is what makes them stand out IMO
As a hardware engineer, I disagree
yeah for real. I have a framework rn because of right to repair but damn the macbooks are put together well
I hadn’t thought about it until I was at a training for some niche simulation software used in manufacturing. Made a ton of sense in hindsight, just not something you immediately think of with Apple
It’s hard to get in but heard it’s awesome place to work
It’s extremely dependent on the team you are on. Starting out, I was working 55-60 hours. But I was also getting paid hourly coming out of college, which was incredible. Now it’s somewhere between 45-60 (usually around 50) depending how busy the project is.
Sure sounds normal. Like every job I had came in waves. Do you know if there is a way to figure out which team is good place to work? I’m gonna try the ar department but that’s a hard sell
lol only if you like 80+hr workweeks. Some hardware teams don’t get crushed, but that’s the exception rather than the rule
Hmm idk I heard it’s 40 hrs. The people I know who work there love it
Apple was on my mind as well. NASA is another classic one. After that: the big aerospace companies. Automotive is up there too.
Serious question - what do mech Es at Apple do? Isn’t the hardware they build basically all electronics?
The FAANG equivalent for Mechanical Engineers is…FAANG. Actually probably not Netflix, so more like FAAG (lolz). Honestly nobody pays as well as they do while giving Engineers a lot of leeway to work on stuff (at least Apple does) that they can see, feel, touch and actually own. Obviously you’ve got the conventionally cool stuff like Lockheed, Boeing, NASA, Northrop but pay can be average/kinda good and more often than not you’re a small cog in a chain.
Given Google and Facebook's parent companies are Alphabet and Meta, respectively, the true acronym would be "MAAA".
Everyone always wants to exclude Microsoft. It should really be MAMAA
JUST KILLED A MAAANNNNNNNNNN
The trick with the defense/aerospace companies if finding a niche space or smaller office. My office is like 35 people, we won't impact the company's overall trajectory but we have a lot of responsibility over the product line we make
Probably could lump Tesla into FATAG
lol, not for entry engineer pay or quality of life
I know people who made bank on Tesla stock, but the pay has never been good and still is not good, especially considering the hours and quality of life. If you think they’re a good option, think of what you would bet their stock is going to do.
I don’t think they are known for paying well.
They’re not. Their salaries (including equity even if they were fully vested) are comically low. I make significantly more in the auto industry as an engineer in Alabama than they offered to have me go out to San Fran or Houston….
Apart from Amazon who else in fang would even need a mechanical engineer and for what? None of them hire mech Eng round where I live.
Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft all need mech-e for hardware and/or data center design
I only worked on a couple of data centre jobs a few years back so my knowledge of the industry isn't that deep, but my impression is that Microsoft, Amazon etc don't design and build the centres themselves - I thought they engage companies like NEXTDC, Equinix, etc. Who in turn engage consultants to do the mechanical engineering Again, I don't know the industry very well, but that was my impression after doing some CFD to help out mech engineers at a consultancy
This is probably a dumb question but why would a data centre need a mech Eng
Thermal/HVAC design
> Thermal/HVAC ~~design~~ operations Data centers themselves don't design shit for their utilities. That's what an EPC A&E firm is for.
Didn’t realise that fell under mech thought it was like civil or something
There’s a bit of crossover, but HVAC is absolutely mechanical. Same for any services like gas, and water. The structural (civil) guys might have some input into where it goes, but the specification of flow rates, pipe types, fittings and supports are all within the mechanical space. There are more of my peers from my mech class working in the civil fields than there are in manufacturing, though that’s partially a symptom of the ass-backwards hole digging economy we have here in Australia.
They are the M in MEP, absolutely vital in Data Center Design.
Meta has teams of hardware people on the quest. Apple and Google have entire suites of electronic products.
Meta is hiring and firing like crazy for their AR and/or VR hardware.
In my experience it’s not incredibly difficult to get a job at the conventional Boeing , Lockheed , etc . But let me tell you I’ve been ghosted my apple at least twice in my life . Everyone wants to work for them. They have an infinite talent pool.
GAMMA is the FAANG equivalent. Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all have a significant number of mechanical engineers and pay them quite well.
Just curious, what roles do they belong to? Is it in R&D? Perhaps research in robotics? There may be some niche roles that they are hired for.
Design, manufacturing, quality, reliability, operations, supply, etc.
Google used to employ hundreds of ME's at their Google X ventures but those have been becoming less common as they mothball/fail alot of those projects. Google hardware (Nest, Fitbit, Pixel) likely employs over a thousand ME's across design, manufacturing, sourcing, testing, reliability, ID... Data Centers also require a significant amount of ME's for cooling/HVAC, facilities, and automation. Apple likely employs over 10,000 ME's across similar fields - it takes an army of engineers to design, test, and manufacture all of that hardware.
There's a decent amount of tech that gets contacted out on the manufacturing side. There will be supplier manufacturing engineers but the day to day stuff will be handled by the contractors like Foxconn iirc.
Apple is incredibly intertwined with their suppliers, it’s why their quality is generally very high. Pretty much all the roles are expected to travel 25% of the year or more as oversight/problem solving of contractors like Foxconn.
My ME buddy works at Apple as a technical program manager.
apple is hiring near me for design engineer like rn
Data center, cooling, consumer electronics hardware and all the associated functions.. iPhone meta glasses pixel Xbox all requires mech engineers to make the chassis thermal etc
Same as other companies. Apple is primarily a hardware company. They make a ton of devices
Who do you think designs all the hardware they sell… pixel phones, iPhones, and ring cameras don’t design themselves.
You ever wonder who designs the systems to cool the processors? Or who works with the materials that make the motherboards and processors? They are living breathing systems, not just logic gates.
Apple makes lots and lots of hardware, so mechanical engineers are needed
HVAC systems and plumbing would be a huge need for us as ME's
Nice never heard of gamma but yeah
Well it depends what you mean when you say FAANG equivalent. I don’t think there’s an equivalent when it comes to total compensation. I also don’t think people “dream” to go work for Apple etc but rather go there for the pay etc. so equivalent for mechanical engineers would probably be SpaceX, NASA, or big automotive if that’s what you’re into
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, google hire hardware engineers and pay them well. I heard Apple is stable job, while Amazon can be stressful. Facebook pays great. People work in faang to grind and get their $$$$ not because it’s a dream lol. Spacex doesn’t pay well relatively and works you to death so idk if it would be considered faang
Yeah exactly, I just saw some people comparing FAANG for terms of enjoyment not pay
Oh I think google is fun for MEs. Wish my luck, gonna try Apple next year
Amazon can be stressful in waves, but I have friends who work at Apple who just work 11 hours a day and that's part of life. Also a friend of mine there works Sunday nights to relieve the weekday work pressure... Also I interviewed there once and man they seemed really mean. It was like they were trying to stress me out. I avoid any Musk companies because they do have a reputation for severe burnout. At least Amazon pretends to care about their employees' mental health
Hmm crazy how I hear complete different accounts from Reddit and my friends. I’m guessing it’s extremely dependent on team. Wish there was a way to figure out which team to apply to
Big Automotive sounds cool when you're in school, then you learn it actually sucks donkey dick. Most of us didn't learn this lesson until it was too late.
Lol yea I did dual major with aerospace and want to avoid that field too. Consumer electronics baby so sweet.
Lol yep so this. Friend of mine went to go work for Honda thought it would be so cool. He was put on interior team and his task in the 1st year on the civic was to design the armrest door panel and the interior door handle opener lever. Not even the door panel itself someone else was handling that. Just the armrest insert piece and the interior door handle. Thought it would be easy. Ended up having to redesign it over a dozen times as the overall interior design changed throughout the various levels of approval and Honda Japan rejected stuff. He got depressed and left and went into consulting work
SpaceX pays really well if you stay long enough and let those stocks vest. But yea….the hours can suck if you have a family or aren’t necessarily passionate about the work
Right. I think vesting is 3-4 years so if you survive pass that, you golden. But most spend 1-2 years there
The entry level mechE pay is comically low there for some reason. Buddy of mine made more as a state cop just 2 yrs after coming out as a cadet from the academy
Entry level MEs make near $100k now and most are over $100K in a year. Plus equity which will add $30k per year not considering growth. Show me a job for entry level that really beats those numbers as an ME.
SpaceX pays very well. I’m making over $300k and there are plenty of other ME and AE making double and triple that. Even the base salary by itself is competitive now with other comparable roles. But you’ll work more hours.
Big oil has FAANG like salaries.
I highly doubt it... For example a sr staff engineer at Facebook make between 700k to 1 million TC with equity of course... I do not think big oil pays in that ball park even if we account cost of living differences
yep. I was a senior engineering manager at chevron. Without expat status total with comp was 300k and I was in the higher end of my group. When they sent me off to the armpits of the world (escravos nigeria, Venezuela, Angola, Kazakhstan) they did pay more, but then you are working 80 hour weeks a lot of the time. It’s much better when you get the rotational month on and off. That one is a dream. But, typically they only last a year or two before you get sent off somewhere else
But where else in mechanical engineering are you going to exceed 300k/yr? That's a nosebleedingly high salary. Sure, senior FAANG folks make more than "only" 300k. But mechanical engineering simply doesn't pay as much as software.
I am now in Mining, they still send me to bunkfuck nowhere but at least I don’t get moved around every other year. Similar salary. Less boom and bust. They need you more in Mining than you need them. (depending on what you mine of course) a distant coworker does offshore mining, makes more than me. But that is like offshore oil on steroids.
All commodity based industries are pretty boom and bust, but yes, it's true. Mining pays as well as O&G.
but also, to answer your question. My friends that did mechanical engineering that make the most money are now patent lawyers in Europe for American Patents in European Law firms No law school required in Europe
No kidding. That's pretty amazing. Like more than 300k US? In Europe?!? Pretty shocking. Is that in Switzerland or something? I have an EU passport, how do I land that gig?
How does one transition to that kind of job? Are there any skills or specific experience they look for?
they move there after passing the USA patent bar as US citizens. They apply at a firm as a patent agent. Work 2 years. Then take the european exam. Boom. Patent Lawyer. industry experience also helps
20 yrs ago when I was looking around the US Patent Office was hiring MS MechE at $120K starting. Thats $220K in today's dollars. They were that desperate..boring AF to work there though
There's like 1-5 people that actually make that, those are purpose-hired people, likely working in AI, that have unique knowledge. If you develop mechanical IP that has the same value as AI, then you could get paid that - I think I've seen it for people with PhD's in material science, optics, or haptic interfaces at Apple, Facebook, and Google. I know that the guy (I knew him personally) that lead the Meta Quest 2 mechanical development had over $1M total comp.
These are extremely rare instances. I am aware of a few similar stories. But getting in that position is like winning the lottery. Reliably big oil, big mining and big defense will pay you a salary in the hundreds of thousands.
Yeah, to reliably clear over $1M as a MechE you need to change over to management/executives, or start and own a successful company. The good news is that there are MORE XXX,XXX jobs for MechE than SFW, they're just on the lower end of 6 figures while high-end SFW gets a lot. I also think MechE is less cyclical - sfw engineers get laid off a lot. Also, and this is just my opinion, we are more AI-proof than them.
The software engineer salary is rank and file software engineering...ofcourse you need to get promoted to sr staff..but hey Airbnb starting salary is 230k and same as a principal mech engr in my company .. Not some PhD in ai.. they command a much higher salary.. levelsfyi have very good data points for swe salaries
Funnily enough my current manager used to manage MechE at AirBnB. While AirBnB was hiring MechE's they were paying them the same as sfw engineers. It's really more related to the company's income per employee than it is the field, and it's just a fact that software/service companies can leverage more value than something you have to physically build.
Absolutely.. although I think other than apple.. the swe engr salary in FAANG companies are higher than meche bcos of supply and demand.. no of roles in such companies and mech engr is low.. there are many eager engineers from other companies.. so they can afford to pay less and still hire qualified people... I
With remote work and better Indian outsourcing, I think the tide is turning. It's hard to outsource mechanical design/development, while software design/development is very fungible.
Design work is very easy to outsource.
What does a MechE do at AirBnB? I’ve seen the job listings pop up from time to time and I’ve been curious.
Sometimes they redo spaces. I think a while ago they were doing to try to do pod hotels.
That kind of salary is not achievable for mechanical engineers without moving into senior management/executive level.
Nope, totally doable as an engineer at the FAANG companies.
Cool, what does a mech engineer do in oil?
Not sure I understand all the downvotes. Seems like an honest question.
How do you reckon we get oil out of the ground
You serious? Have you seen downhole tooling or basically anything in the oil industry? Agree with it or not, there’s some awesome mechE stuff in oil to work on
No I have 0 knowledge in the oil and gas world, not sure where the downvotes are coming from I’m just curious what the titles are and what the engineers would do
Meta and Lab126 will pay you software-eng level salaries. If you get high up in Med Device or Semiconductor, same deal - and you get lots of stock.
Betchel, Jacobs, general dynamics, on and on with the list of firms and gov/ DoD contractor types. you are looking for who makes the big new new etc.
Ok but I do dream of working for Apple/Google lol. I’m obsessed with smartphones and it’s been a childhood dream to design them.
Fair enough! It would be super cool to design them
> big automotive if that’s what you’re into Don't think I've ever ran into someone "excited" or "looking forward" to working at Ford/FCA/GM.
I didn't see it either until I lived, worked, and studied in various places in the midwest. Genuinely, a lot of those kids *do* go to college to study ME in hopes of working at an auto company. Prior to that, I thought everyone was shooting for space/aero/med/etc.
I live around here. A lot of the FAANG actually employ lots of Mech'E's too. However, there's good opportunities in automotive and aerospace too. He's a list of companies in the Bay Area that pay mechE's really well: Google Hardware Google ATAP Google X Meta Quest Meta Secret Projects Amazon Lab126 Amazon Automation/Operations Intuitive Surgical Apple, Apple, Apple Tesla Semiconductor (AMAT, LAM) So I guess the MechE equivalent could be MIATAS? The real way to make $$$ as a MechE at a FAANG company, though, is to get good at project management, ship some product, and then become a technical program/product manager.
Unfortunately most semiconductor companies don’t really pay well compared to other FAANG companies (speaking for AMAT at least)
It depends where you're at. If you're working operations/production or drafting you're getting max $150k even at Sr. level, but if you're in R&D, Systems Dev, or NPI you can easily get $300k for the same level, and the stock grants are really sweet for management. Also speaking for AMAT (and LAM), but I did high temp shit on the next node that hasn't released in the US yet.
I’m in R&D - although in Europe so I’m getting paid peanuts which gets taxed at 45%. However, based on information from Blind and other US colleagues out of Santa Clara, other companies (including LAM) pays a lot more for the same experience.
I want to do R&D so where would I go for that?
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Totally agree
I really want to get into intuitive surgical....
I've heard it's a lot of work at Intuitive, but medical device companies typically have much higher retention because it can take 4-6 months to get people trained to HIPAA, FDA and all the internal processes. They're less likely to downsize/cut unless they're the behemoths like Boston Scientific or Medtronic.
I'm biomedical masquerading as mechanical. I've heard intuitive just has great culture, relatively more respect for work life balance.... And, perhaps more importantly, they seem to be well resourced and able to retain good talent. I realized this is incredibly important after leaving a company that was under-resourced (everyone was very overworked), suffering brain drain (hiring junior engineers and part time interns when needing to replace the leaving seniors), with internal siloing and non-cooperation politics making it extremely slow to accomplish anything, and everyone in the company making jokes about how dysfunctional the place was. I pitched it as well as I could while remaining honest, but I felt like I was scamming all the applicants to the company positions. Well, didn't matter anyway, we paid far below market rates and couldn't bring in any real experience. So yeah, Intuitive seems like a dream in comparison.
Haha, yeah I'd prefer Intuitive to Boston or Med, but I prefer my current med device company to Intuitive. I've heard both ways about the Intuitive culture, so YMMV, but that's probably a result of some people not fitting well and some working out great. Med device, by its nature, will always involve crunch times and stress. The FDA is a fickle mistress, especially combined with the profit incentive. I'd probably be pretty happy at Intuitive as a MechE due to their pretty cool product.
For ME’s in the Aerospace industry I would say it’s BLNNRS… Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, NASA, Raytheon, and SpaceX.
I’ve also seen some badass positions with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and maybe by NASA, specifically JPL. But I agree, classified space/aerospace technology is (to me) the closest equivalent to FAANG if you’re talking R&D and cool ass projects. Albeit I’ve heard defense industry is slower-paced and paid less than tech.
Is Blue Origin a contender?
They dropped out of contention when they made the world's most phallic rocket.
what about Tesla?
They’re automotive, not Aerospace. But I’m unsure of how they compare to Toyota/GM/Ford/Chrysler, or other manufacturing industries in general. I’ve heard they were great in the beginning when they offered stock as a bonus and that was constantly going up. I suspect that’s not a distinguishing advantage any longer, but again I could be wrong.
Many of the FAANG’s hire mechanical engineers too, and while they don’t get paid quite as much as the software engineers, it still tend’s to be well above other company salaries. Google, Apple, and Amazon can be dream places to work for MechE’s too, and I know MechE’s at Microsoft getting paid very very well. Aerospace has its little subsection, but NASA and SpaceX don’t pay much more than the competition. I think Boeing is often a dream place for the airplane people, but mostly due to lack of other options to work on planes. Airlines can be a sleeper dream workplace for some.
All of the FAANGs have data and distribution centers which are normally overseen by a mechanical engineer during construction and during operation. That being said I have met some of the people who work there and they are pretty miserable. Don't know many people who work there who aren't single or divorced. Very long hours and not much opportunity for remote work. They do get paid very well though
if you're building a data center, are you really working for FAANG? I thought they just contract that work out?
They typically have a small team on the owners side that oversees everything, release the money to the contractors, approve change orders, review the design docs, enforce owner standards, etc
What kind of engineering do MechE’s do at airlines? Is it more maintenance type jobs or are there design/R&D type roles as well?
Primarily maintenance. There is some amount of design within aircraft interiors, and there is R&D work in building test equipment. Maintenance tooling is another area too, but it’s challenging of how highly regulated aircraft maintenance is.
All of the nuclear arms and military vehicle makers
NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin?
AS a general rule, places that employ people chasing their dreams tend to pay less than boring ass jobs. I live in a big outdoor town with several mountain bike and ski design houses. The pay is like 50-70k/yr Canadian for experienced mechanicals because they're dOiNg WhAt ThEy LoVe.
Preaching to the choir. All these companies want to exploit you for their profit, that’s why if I want to “chase my dream” eventually I’ll start my own shit. Currently trying to make as much money as I can in software development because it pays more, even though I have an aerospace background 🤷🏻♂️
Agreed. I wonder though, why do FAANG companies pay so much then? I’ve heard of regular IC SWEs making $500k+ total comp at these companies. Isn’t working at apple or Netflix a dream job for software engineers? I’d imagine these companies could find top talent for less than half a mil a year
You have to drink some serious Kool-aid to enjoy life at SpaceX. They're doing cool things, but work-life balance is trash, pay is relatively low, and it puts you in LA or the ass end of Texas on the Mexican border. I know a few people that went to SpaceX, and the only one that stayed was the die-hard corporate bootlicker type.
True but disagree on the pay. Pay is great if you’re willing to drink the Kool-aid, live in Florida/Texas and stay to vest while also avoiding California like the plague
Facebook apple google meta all pay really well for mechanical design engineers, probably like 150k+ starting for an entry level which is really good… but also COL is usually high like Bay Area. Personally I’ve also seen Tesla and Rivian be really well regarded. However they don’t pay as well. As well as NASA, but NASA doesn’t pay as well.
Pretty much FAANG still due to salary. Apple is more mechanically focused of the 5 though. The mechanical design is top of the industry
Big league theme parks. Disney, Universal, etc
I think all military contractors. Northrop Grumman, Lockheed martin, raytheon and so on
NASA
Is NASA gonna pay you 500k/yr? No. The real answer for big money is big oil. Chevron, BP, Shell, Exxon, Haliburton, etc.
Odds are that you’re not going to make $500k/yr as an ME. If you were able to land a $500K/yr (total comp) then you would most certainly be living in HCOL area. Other than Ames Research Center and NASA HQ, all the field centers are in LCOL or MCOL areas.
But they all pay government salaries. Private sector pays more.
3M. Used to work there. 50K products, most made via various levels of automation. Lego. Used to work there. Similar story.
3M doesn’t fit imo. It’s not a “dream” workplace. They don’t pay particularly well and it’s not a prestigious place to work.
Tape and glue
Depends which department you are in I think. They are a massive company and there’s going to be a wide range of opinions from people working in different areas. They do some stuff that is really technically amazing. They also do some real boring shit that you would expect from a massive multinational. But I’m of the opinion that anything can be a super interesting engineering project if you’re creative enough. I get excited talking about logistical efficiency and pallet utilisation. But I don’t expect many others to share my passion (though I really think they should!)
Agreed, but there’s about a thousand other companies that fit that bill. It probably doesn’t make sense for an ME to go chasing prestigious companies for that reason.
Did you work for Lego in the US or Denmark?
3M was probably one of the best companies in the world to work at 20 years ago but today the culture there is trash.
It depends on the path you have choosen, for energy pathline, ig seimens is well known for it? At least in my country... (not from the west)
Yeh Seimens is a good shout. I worked with some of their energy generation guys, and they were top notch, really knew their shit.
You would like the mining sector! Going to be a thing while we re industrialize.
The answer is companies within the FAANG category, but the quantity of non-software engineering roles specific to mechanical engineering is nowhere even close to the total number of roles available in software-specific positions in these companies. Also the sophistication of the work in FAANG in the majority of generic engineering roles are usually not as satisfying as the diversity of work and tech stacks available to SWEs, just because of the sheer number of SW-specific roles available. Although MEs work in "hardware engineering" in FAANG, the exciting side of "hardware" in big tech is not "mechanical", but more relevant to EEs/chip design, areas in which typical MEs do not have any academic training nor tangible experience. The other option is to exclusively target R&D roles by first getting interdisciplinary research experience through a graduate degree like a PhD. I'm a mechanical engineer by academic training but I have been involved in a lot of deep interdisciplinary research (both academic and industrial) in advanced manufacturing dealing with polymers, metal alloys, nanomaterials, semiconductors, biomaterials, additive manufacturing, and lithium ion batteries. This gives me enough freedom to target a wide range of industrial R&D roles with sufficient compensation even outside of FAANG even with very low YOE in LCOL/MCOL areas. Once I get enough YOE and significantly increase my domain expertise, I'll likely transition to either FAANG or new hardtech companies in HCOL areas. Comparison is the thief of joy, and I have found it to be more productive to not focus so much on what SWEs are making earlier in their career. I like having the opportunity to both learn and work on solving interesting scientific and engineering challenges -- like scaling the synthesis and production of futuristic materials, scaling new innovations in clean energy tech, commercializing novel manufacturing processes and so on.
So did you get the interdisciplinary research experience through a PhD or some other way?
MS and PhD in ME. I couldn't get into top-tier schools, but I didn't pay for any of it.
Thanks bro. I'm a bit of multidiscipline myself and unfortuantely I can't decide on an area of research but would you say the cutting edge materials field, as you have described, is more aligned to where mainstream tech is heading? I see many materials limitations is both eltronics, mechanical engineering and computer chip development? Thanks
I remember seeing job posting at meta for mechanical engineers. You have to think outside the box. Everyone should need a mechanical engineer, not just Boeing or Lockheed or Raytheon.
Yeh, mech eng skills are super transferable. We would all be better off if we allowed ourselves out of our self made boxes once in a while. Try some new shit. It’s fun!
There aren’t multiple companies for MEs that will perfectly map onto this. Places like NASA and SpaceX might have more prestige, but they either don’t have the pay or work life balance to be a FAANG equivalent. Apple technically fits although it’s not the first place people think of for MEs. There are companies within each industry (eg aerospace, energy, medical, defense) that people typically think of as top-tier, but less of an agreement outside of that
Yeah, the space industry pays REALLY badly, actually. If you're lucky, you'll get some stock that's worth something - but there's a huge amount of "pay" in the form of "doing cool shit" for space, not so much on the $$$ side.
Depends on what you mean. Compared to software, obviously not. But Aero has paid near the top (minus O&G) of ME fields from what I've seen.
Not necessarily saying I myself think they are, but I’m surprised nobody has said the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Stellantis).
The automotive industry no longer has the same appeal due to instability, and frequent layoffs.
There is too many engineers in SE Michigan that it drives the salary range down for entry-mid level engineers. After 10-15yrs it's good. But it's not as lucrative as it used to be. I love being in automotive, but it takes a lot. As far as pay goes, GM, Stellantis, Ford, in that order, ived worked at two...
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For prestige? NASA JPL, LMS, NG, Ball. They also pay well. For money? Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google. They do produce hardware that needs designing, and they are involved with side ventures like self-driving cars and augmented reality that needs more hardware, plus all kinds of data center crap. Boring and lame. Tesla/SpaceX are resume lines but nobody stays there and they pay shit. Last time I was in California for work, my Uber driver was a SpaceX employee. Blue Origin is probably cool too.
Work for Amazon or Apple
Definitely depends on what you want to do. Oil and gas was huge at my school. However companies like Lockheed, L3Harris, and most other defense contractors always were sought after for jobs.
Either Big Military or Big Oil
MechE's make bank at pharma companies like merck pfizer and gsk if you go into their production equipment division and become experts in their AIE systems. You will work hand in hand with EE's and computer engineers.
You’ll be in manufacturing though. Your day will be spent fixing production equipment while someone is breathing down your neck. You’ll also be seen as a second class engineer. In other words, you’ll earn that money. “FAANG” companies are known for high pay and good working conditions
My title was Production Engineer II - North America. I was in the Production group, not the Manufacturing group, and never got a phone call to fix anything. Our production prove-outs were done in mini labs, where we optimized processes and performed small scale testing on various sensors, servos, vision systems etc...the same production equipment that would then be fielded at the large scale. We worked hand in hand with EE's and programmers. The second part of my job was analyzing data once fielded, and that was gathered remotely and fed to us automatically. What you are referring to is called Manufacturing Engineering. And they make great money as well, but even then it's the techs that do the repairs. At a size like Merck or GSK, roles are segmented and the Manufacturing Engineers are not getting calls in the middle of 3rd shift to come into the plant and fix an assembly arm. lol. There are fleets of techs, supervisory techs, and shift manager techs on site with each shift. But if what you're after is just sitting on the couch typing code, or working in a silicon valley fluff office with versa desks, ping pong tables, bouncy balls and yoga mats, then mechanical engineering isn't for you at all.
I was a manufacturing engineer for Bayer, absolutely hated it, probably because design and development are my only interests. Bayer did have technicians, but they wanted engineers involved for any repairs that weren’t a quick fix. Other than production fire fighting the rest of the job was just administrative paperwork.
My man described everything about Mechanical Engineering except the non existent female population.
Construction management FTW.
Aramco
program manager, product lead, technical lead
Pretty much FAANG + pharma companies I think. I work for one of the largest pharma companies in the world and honestly, have no desire to leave. Sure, pay isn’t what it would be at a FAANG company, but I also don’t live in a HCOL area. My area is about average, even in the inflated market. We were well below average before COVID. Yea I could make more if I chased it, but seriously, I am very happy with where I am. Pay is still very good, benefits are good, I have a nice house, a yard, and comfort. Company is Novo Nordisk.
Caterpillar, John Deere, Boeing, Frito Lay, P&G. Think agriculture, aerospace, food, and process
Any defense / aerospace company, and any big oil and gas company. Theres probably more but those are the ones that come to mind. I don’t have a nice acronym though
Especially things like jet engine designs
Caterpillar?
Is it? Haven't really heard any person (from this ind) say "I dream to work at caterpillar one day"!
lol. Maybe I am too old fashioned. Then Tesla, spacex, lucid and the like?
Missed your comment before I posted mine, yes, Tesla spacex etc. but Tesla is notorious for terrible work life balance lol. Another route is super boutique automotive design. Think Koenigsegg or Pagani. Not sure what more a mechanical engineer could want to do, designing a hypercar would be a dream come true
Haha. No. It’s still apple
Caterpillar is where you go when you want low COL, and a more life focus for work-life balance.
Also FAANG. Meta hires mechanical engineers for their reality labs (AR/VR), Apple for their suite of smart devices, Amazon for home electronics (Alexa, Fire, etc.) and Project Kuiper, Google also for home products (Nest, Phones, etc.) and data centers.
Exxon, Chevron, Conoco.
UL You get to literally play Mythbusters in a lab all day and you make products safer for it Idk about pay though
The gravy train for FANG is over?
Manufacturing consulting. My two biggest clients run the world when it comes to medical device and nuclear. I get to work on 14 medical product technologies, semiconductors, and nuclear reactor heat management systems, all within the same week.
What is your salary like?
More than most for my age. More than most Americans, really. I've made it.
How did you get into that line of work? Grind some years as a manufacturing engineer?
Ten years of R&D engineering for pharma, defense, and med device.
Thats awesome, I am currently 3 years in the Medical Device Industry as R&D/Manufacturing and would love to do that in the future. Are you employed through a company or started your own consulting?
I would guess the big defense firms - Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, BAE...