William Jeppson

04/15/16

Business 1010

Automotive Engineer Analysis Paper

Job Description
What does an automotive engineer do? The first thing you would think of is that
they help design the technical side of automobiles for a vehicle manufacturer such as
Honda. While this may be true, a large portion of automotive engineers work for other
companies, such as AC Delco, that receive specification of components needed from the
vehicle manufacturer and then design, build and ship that part to the manufacturer, which
assembles all the components.
A great example of this system is Takata Corporation. They designed and
manufactured airbags for more than two dozen manufacturers, ranging from Toyota all
the way up to the supercar maker, Bugatti. There has been a massive recall on airbags
produced by them due to metal pieces that may come loose in airbag deployment that can
injure passengers. A recall to correct this issue has affected millions upon millions of
vehicles with a total of 29 million air bag inflators needing to be replaced. (Atiyeh, C.,
2016) This example helps demonstrate the system for how parts on cars are designed and
produced.
Modern vehicles are becoming so complex due to crash safety standards, and
emissions and pollution standards that the work of engineering one has to be split up into
hundreds of different teams that head up individual components. One may be assigned to
develop a new transmission that has a constantly variable gear ratio while another may be
designing the software that allows a hybrid vehicle to determine how much hydraulic
brake force to use at different speeds in combination with electric regenerative braking
and a next engineer may design where to put cup holders.

The majority of this work is performed on computers in 3D design software, such

as CAD. After a component is designed, approved, and manufactured then the engineer
will get a small portion of hands on testing to determine weaknesses or other potential
improvements to be made. Engineers must also work in teams, write technical reports for
use by employees or customers, and make time/cost estimates. (PayScale, 2016)
General Career Path
Things are fairly straightforward for an automotive engineers career path. It
begins in school, perhaps with an internship, then one would get hired and earn higher
levels of pay as they get more experience. Eventually there may be opportunities to head
teams and be leaders over less experienced engineers. Becoming a senior level leader
within their own company is often the highest an engineer can go.
There are a few more options after an engineer leaves that position. They could
become a college professor and teach upcoming engineers, some could start out on their
own consulting/engineering businesses, and others could branch out further to different
jobs in the automotive industry in sales positions because they are well educated on the
technical side of the products. (Educating Engineers, 2016)
General Education Experience
Post-secondary education is absolutely required for this career. Any sort of
engineering degree, especially those with an emphasis on of technical and hands on
subjects are required. (i.e. automotive, aerospace, electrical, and mechanical, etc.)
Generally, an Associates in Engineering is enough to get you hired but many positions
require a Masters degree. Interning is a great way to work on your education while
gaining highly valued work experience.
Car manufacturers often provide opportunities to further their engineers
education. For example, GM offers a part-time study program through the University of

Michigan for hired engineers with bachelors to achieve a masters degree. The employer
is making investments in its employees and wants to improve that asset.
Average Salary
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics the average salary for a
mechanical engineer in 2014 was $83,060 per year or an hourly rate of $39.93 per hour.
This salary can average around $20,000 in either direction, even within the same
company based on skills and work experience. While I could not find any specific
information on the automotive division of engineering I did see noted on the U.S.B.L.S.
webpage for mechanical engineers that Many mechanical engineers work in industries
that manufacture machinery or automotive parts. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015)
A working salary of $83,000 a year is a good wage to earn, and I know I can live
comfortably with that. One last item to consider on the topic of salary is
compensation/perks outside of the base pay. Overall, most automotive engineers are
awarded medical benefits while some receive dental as well. These perks add more value
to the already decent salary.
Career Outlook
The future is very bright for the automotive field, especially that of engineers.
The demands for how a car performs has never been higher, competition between car
makers is fierce and thriving, and the government already has laws in place that are
forcing the industry to push the boundaries of what we can make a car do. (Handley, M,
2012) Automotive Engineers have a lot of work to do, but thats a good thing!
While there have been some recent setbacks, like the economy tanking in 2008
that caused several big car makers to seek government bailout, we will always have a
need of cars/trucks. We depend on them just as much as we do oil for our economy to
survive.

Exciting new things are happening, never before have we seen so many
alternative fuel technologies, battery, solar, hydrogen, and CNG are becoming more
mainstream. All of these fuels demand a complex drivetrain and engine management
systems that need to be engineered. New convenience and safety technologies are also
booming, with self-driving cars, auto-pilot modes, lane departure assistance, automatic
emergency braking and other ideas we havent even heard of yet being developed and
produced.
Offshoring engineering jobs may be a concern, especially as all the new standards
put increasing financial burdens on the automaker. There are lots of qualified engineers
in other countries and this is already happening with major component manufacturing.
For the time being however, it is more beneficial to have American engineers design
American automobiles because of a great understanding of what Americans want in an
automobile. Manufacturing processes can occur separate from the engineers
geographically but it makes overseeing, testing and quality control a little more difficult
and time consuming.
Bio of Someone in The Profession
I learned about Peter Whitlock, a 26 year old automotive engineer who lives in
Australia and works for the automaker Holden. Holden is a branch of GM and therefore
Peter indirectly works for General Motor Company. His responsibilities are to develop
automatic transmissions, most recently for the Holden Commodore and the Chevy
Camaro. He spends a large amount of time getting to drive the cars and disassemble
transmissions to figure out issues they have and to recreate problems. One of his major
responsibilities is getting the transmission to work the same in both extremely hot and
extremely cold conditions. He noted that there is also a large amount of desk time to
evaluate the data learned in the field and process it.

Peter earned a double bachelors degree in business administration and aerospace

engineering at RMIT. He is currently working towards a part time masters degree with
GM.
He ended up in the automotive industry instead of the aerospace field because there are
more opportunities in Australia working with cars than with planes.
Pros and Cons
This is a rather broad category that really goes hand in hand with the next
category My fit for this career so I will try to make this section more about generic
pros and cons and the next more on personal preferences.
Pros of being an automotive engineer include, but are not limited to: being on the
cutting edge in an exciting industry, getting many opportunities to problem solve, getting
first look and access to new vehicles, and learning to work with new materials and
processes.
Cons of being an automotive engineer include but are not limited to: having large
projects with tight deadlines to meet manufacturing year segmentation, having the bar
raised very high on you and having large expectations from your work. That can be a lot
of pressure.
The majority of automotive engineers report being happy with their jobs and enjoying
their line of work. So as long as you have what it takes to be an engineer, its a good type
of engineer to be.
My Fit for this Career
This is a tricky one. A large portion of the time an engineer spends at work is at a
desk job, working on a computer. I can do that work but I feel more engaged when I am
using my hands and my head, not just my head at a desk. Im aware they do spend some

really fun hands on time with the cars but from my understanding, its the exception, not
the norm. That doesnt appeal to me.
The other major issue I have with the job is you need to live near a manufacturing
plant. The majority of automotive engineers work in Michigan, California, and Texas in
major cities. I dont like living in a major urban area, I enjoy more rural places. Living
there would be less comfortable for me and I couldnt enjoy many of my outdoor hobbies
and activities.
Those two issues being set aside, there are many great things that would suit me
well. I LOVE cars, and being able to work around making them would be so exciting for
me. I also heavily enjoy learning new things because I am always curious to find out
how things work and what makes them tick. Figuring out new ways to make things tick
would be exciting!
That leaves me with two big points for it, and two big points against it. Im
undecided if I should pursue a career in this field but I guess thats ok, because I still have
time to figure it out. My current career choice of a mechanic shares the same path at this
point in my education and will continue to do so for another two semesters. In the mean
time until I reach said crossroads where I need to make that choice, I will have some
things to ponder about.

Sources
-Atiyeh, C. (2016, April 14). Massive Takata Airbag Recall: Everything You Need to
Know, Including Full List of Affected Vehicles. Retrieved April 15, 2016, from
http://blog.caranddriver.com/massive-takata-airbag-recall-everything-you-need-to-knowincluding-full-list-of-affected-vehicles.
-Educating Engineers. (n.d.). Automotive Engineer Careers. Retrieved April 17, 2016,
from http://educatingengineers.com/careers/automotive-engineer
-Handley, M. (2012, August 29). 54.5 MPG For All Cars by 2025 With New CAFE
Standards? Not Exactly. Retrieved April 12, 2016, from
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/29/545-miles-per-gallon-for-all-cars-by-

2025-not-exactly
-Payscale. (2016, January 12). Automotive Engineer Salary, Retrieved April 13, 2016,
from http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Automotive_Engineer/Salary
-US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015, December 17). Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved April 15, 2016, from
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-engineers.htm