What’s the job outlook for mechatronics engineers?
May 28, 2019A bachelor’s degree in mechatronics engineering, prepares you with the necessary skills to research, design, develop, or test automation, intelligent systems, smart devices or industrial systems control.
These skills open a wide range of career paths.
Search for mechatronics engineer jobs online and you’ll often land on websites listing mechanical engineering jobs. That’s because many of the skills a mechatronics engineer uses overlaps with those of a mechanical engineer. We previouslywrote about the differences in these two types of engineering.
The good news for mechatronics engineering graduates is that they have more career options than mechanical engineers.
The article, 7 of The Most In-Demand Engineering Jobs for 2019, says the automation and robotics engineer is the second most in-demand engineer, and mechatronics engineers can fill this role. Other job titles a mechatronics engineering graduate should consider include:
- automation specialist
- controls engineer
- equipment engineer
- instrumentation engineer
- process engineer
- robotics technician
- senior design engineer
Since mechatronics is a relatively new field, the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t have any data on salary or job projection specifically for mechatronics engineers, but the U.S. Department of Labor says the total number of all engineers in the United States will increase from 1.68 million to 1.82 million by 2026.
According to the job search engine Glassdoor, the median salary for a mechatronics engineer is $103,810, and some salaries for this type of engineer are reported to be as high as $239,200. Obviously, the higher salary figure is for a mechatronics engineer who has years of experience, but that high salary shows the growth potential in this career.
Back in 2011, Alan S. Brown, the associate editor for the Society of Mechanical Engineers wrote an article called, Mechatronics and the Role of Engineers. He wrote that manufacturing companies want, “students trained to integrate electronics, controls, computers, and moving parts. For them, this is not just where engineering is going. It’s where engineering has arrived.”
Now, nine years later, that prediction has come true.