What does a Reliability Engineer do?

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Reliability Engineer(s) – as the title suggests – focus on one core principle of engineering – reliability. They work to prevent failures and enhance the reliability of a product, machine, asset, or equipment. Let’s dive in to take a closer look at the role.

What is Reliability engineering?

Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of system technology that revolves around reliability in the lifecycle management of a product. Reliability refers to the ability of a system or component to function under specified conditions for a certain period of time. 

Reliability engineering is closely related to security engineering and system security by using common methods for analysis and requiring input from each other. Specifically, reliability engineering focuses on the cost of system downtime, spare parts, repair equipment, personnel, and warranty costs

Reliability Engineer - Role Overview
Reliability Engineer – Role Overview

In essence, reliability engineering is about identifying reliability risks in business operations. This is the primary role of a Reliability Engineer. Furthermore, you can divide the tasks of this role into 3 focus areas, namely: risk management, loss elimination, and lifecycle asset management

Responsibilities of a Reliability Engineer

The main responsibility of a Reliability Engineer is maximizing a site’s equipment assets in order to deliver expected results. This is done through strategic management aspects of reliability engineering, and its relationship to safety and quality. 

Reliability Engineer - Responsibilities and Tasks
Reliability Engineer – Responsibilities and Tasks

A Reliability Engineer is also responsible for the consequences of failure, and the potential for liability. They understand requirements planning for reliability programs and how various engineering and operational systems must be integrated to achieve overall goals. 

They employ risk analysis tools and strategies to evaluate product and system safety issues. Furthermore, a reliability engineer conducts proper testing and develops reliability test plans to ensure appropriate levels of output and reliability. 

Responsibilities and day to day tasks: 

  • Lead various reliability projects and developing new approaches for the preventive diagnosis of products.
  • Analyze and plan the necessary work packages yourself and are responsible for their implementation in the project.
  • Coordinate with system development, construction, and production about requirements and technical implementation.
  • Responsible for deriving the load spectra and monitoring the products.
  • Define and edit the necessary work packages and coordinate the interaction with product development.
  • Reliability design of components and components of electrical engineering/electronics
  • Evaluation and test planning to verify the reliability of components and devices
  • Independent support of teams during the entire process of development and industrialization

In search of a Reliability Engineer?

Reliability Engineer – Skills Required

In order to be successful in this role, having certain skills can be greatly beneficial. Experience in product development of electronic, mechanical, and/or mechatronic products will greatly benefit you as an employee. You must also be able to showcase in-depth knowledge in the area of ​​design and layout of components as well as experienced in the area of ​​reliability design.

Skills Required
Skills Required

In terms of soft skills, you’ll need to first and foremost, work on teamwork and cooperation. Being able to successfully undertake initiatives greatly speaks to your skills as an engineer. 

Skills commonly required:

  • Sound knowledge of the functional aspects of E / E components and circuits
  • Skilled in the field of fault physics and the physical/chemical aging mechanisms
  • Comprehensive knowledge in the field of modeling aging processes
  • Very good knowledge of statistical reliability methods
  • Knowledge of the methods for error analysis such as FMEA, FTA or the like
  • Knowledge of software (e.g. Python) and AI applications is an advantage.
  • Teamwork and Cooperation
  • Ability to undertake initiatives without being asked.
  • Concern for Order, Quality and Accuracy
  • Analytical and Conceptual Thinking

Background

In order to become a reliability engineer, you will be required to have an academic degree in engineering (e.g. mechanical or electrical), mathematics, statistics, or a related degree.

A Bachelor’s degree is usually sufficient for most entry-level roles – although a Master can greatly enhance your resume to potential employers. Previous experience or a Ph.D. will be often required for more advanced positions. 

Salary

In your role as a Reliability Engineer, you can expect to earn up to $187,000 on the higher range of the scale. On the entry-level side, you can expect a salary of at least $47,400. The average salary for a Reliability Engineer is $105,000.

How much does a Reliability Engineer make?

Junior Salary$47,000
Average Salary$187,000
Top Salary$105,000

How much should I charge as a Freelance Reliability Engineer?

Reliability Engineers on freelancermap charge on average:

$/hour

Rates in this field range between $33 and $106/hour for most freelancers.

The daily rate for Reliability Engineers (8 working hours) would be around:

$/day
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Natalia Campana

Natalia is part of the international team at freelancermap. She loves the digital world, social media and meeting different cultures. Before she moved to Germany and joined the freelancermap team she worked in the US, UK and her home country Spain. Now she focuses on helping freelancers and IT professionals to find jobs and clients worldwide at www.freelancermap.com

2 comments

  • Hi,

    Your blogs are very useful and contents are really awesome and helpful. I’m looking for a resume service for me. Could you please assist me on career service and build a professional resume?my details are below

    • Thanks for your kind words, Palani.

      We’re happy to hear that you are finding our content useful. Are you a reliability engineer? Although I’m not a career consultant, I think resumes should adapt to the kind of work you do. For example, a designer can add more color and design to their resume while an IT consultant should keep it more conservative.

      I also recommend you to take a look at the existing resume guidelines in the country where you will be applying for a job. For example, some countries do not want CVs that include photos or marital status.

      You can search for free resume templates online, and here are tips on how to list freelance work experience on your resume: https://www.freelancermap.com/blog/resume-experience-cv/

      We hope this helps!

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