I find this quite interesting, because so far I never met anyone with the job description DESIGN ENGINEER. Though I feel a huge part of my daily business is described exactly by that:
“…Products are usually designed with input from a number of sources such as marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, tool making and packaging engineering. In addition design engineers deal with much more complex technological and scientific systems (aircraft, spacecraft, rockets, trains, ships, dams, bridges, building structures, urban infrastructure, machinery, production systems, propulsion systems, oil, gas, and mining exploration systems, manufacturing processes, military systems, cars, electronics, computers, power generation systems – nuclear, fossil, wind, ocean, and power distribution systemsw…
…When the design involves public safety, the design engineer is usually required to be licensed, for example a Professional Engineer in the U.S and Canada. There is usually an ‘industrial exemption’ for design engineers working on project internal to companies and not delivering professional services directly to the public…
…The next responsibility of many design engineers is prototyping. A model of the product is created and reviewed. Prototypes are usually functional and non-functional. Functional “alpha” prototypes are used for testing and the non-functional are used for form and fit checking. Virtual prototyping software like Ansys or Comsol may also be used. This stage is where design flaws are found and corrected, and tooling, manufacturing fixtures, and packaging are developed…”
BTW, the german version links to “Konstrukteur“, which is for my opinion another story …
