Test or Product Development Engineer?

Guest

WHat is the difference between Test Engineer and Product Development Engineer? If I will apply, which is better? I am a new graduate so I have no experience. But I know I am good in electronics and programming in C++.

New ECE Grad

Joined: 31 Aug 2026 Posts: 16

The two titles(Test Engineer and Product Development Engineer) is currently in a confusing position. In the semicon companies here in the Philippines, the two job title sometimes have overlapping responsibilities in the field of Test Engineering.

For a newly graduate like you, and with your good background in electronics and C++ programming, I would recommend for you to apply for a Test Development Engineering position. The ideal task of a Test Development Engineer is to develop test program, software and hardware, that will test if a part pass the specification defined in the datasheets.

Usually, the test development engineer developes a test method of a certain parameter, together with the product's design engineer(or Product Development Engineer).

Once you've qualified the test program for release to production, the test engineer will then take the responsibility of monitoring the product's performance at production testing. He will evaluate any yield/setup problems that may arise.
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Asmoth72

Joined: 14 Jun 2026 Posts: 1 Location: Philippines

Hi,

Test Engineer and Test Development Engineer are almost equally the same, it varies only on the company "terminology". However, Product Development Engineer, I guess is different, though they have a overlapping area (asmoth is correct).

I agree with asmoth . Better to be a Test Engineer (or Test Development Engineer) based on your qualification. Most of the tester are C based (i.e, credence). The process varies from company to company. In our company, the test engineer creates the program that will be used to test the device. After program checkout (or validating the test program), it will be released to PE (product engineers). The product engineer will release it to the production. However, the responsibility of the PE does not end there. The product engineer is still responsible of monitoring the production after release.
However, some company has a flow like that of what Asmoth had said.
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osf

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2025 12:47 am Post subject:

Being good in Electronics and C programming doesn't necessarily qualify a person to be a Test Development Engineer.
I give you some example why I said this. I interview a lot of Test Development Engineers, Product Engineers and even Test Engineers are most of them (not all but majority) don't even know how the Open/Short Test is done. Everyone answered that it is a Test for the protection diode. Yes, but how the protection diode(s) are tested, everyone stumble. Why we need to Test the positive and negative diode, most of them don't know exactly.
Know it, know how gross IDD, Static IDD, Dynamic IDD, Functional Test, etc. These are basic knowledge a Test Development or Test Engineer needs to be successful. Otherwise, you will be like most of the engineers I interviewed that do routine work without understading them No offense but it's true.
Being a good Development Engineer is even more complex when it come to hardware. At least a basic of PCB design is needed. Why you need a controlled impedance. Why 50 ohms. Why you should consider TDR. What will happen if the traces doesn't have the same delays. Things like that. I find it easy to learn if a person start being a Product Engineer and progress towards Test Engineer or Development Engineer.

Joined: 31 Aug 2026 Posts: 16

Hi Guest,

I agree with "some" of your inputs. But please note that the discussion here is in response to a fresh ECE graduate and with no experience. But nevertheless, I would like to share my views on two items that came up here. First for the fresh ECE grad., then second, for the Test Development Eng'g qualification.

For a fresh ECE graduate, I don't think that we can expect from them to know how to test a device, unless they've experience an on-the-job training from a semicon company and in a test engineering environment. ECE students were trained to design circuits in schools. This means that they also need to know and understand the parameters defined in the datasheets. Parameters that are useful to their circuit designs. Given this scenario, I don't think that ECE students would research on how the parts were tested on a certain parameter. What they're concerned is that the part is within the specs. on the parameters that are important to their design projects.

For the Test Development Eng'g qualification, you're correct that being good in Electronics and C programming doesn't necessarily qualify an engineer to be a Test development engineer, but these are the minimum requirements to be a successful Test Development Engineer.
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Asmoth72