Human Factors Engineer vs UX Designer

Measured from each occupation's own live postings: mostly different jobs wearing similar names. Posted pay favors the human factors engineer by about $61k at the midpoint. Everything on this page is read from the two occupations’ own live postings and refreshed every night.

The short answer

$114k–$165kHuman Factors Engineer
+$61kHuman Factors Engineer, at the midpoint
$41k–$115kUX Designer

On pay, human factors engineers come out ahead by about $61k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $114k–$165k against $41k–$115k for ux designers. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates.

On skills, they are mostly different jobs that happen to share a name or a hallway. The overlap is thin, which is often exactly why people search this pair. The readiness numbers further down say how far a typical profile on each side already reaches into the other, and which direction is the easier move.

Human Factors Engineer

Posted pay, middle half$114k–$165k
FieldEngineering
Postings read149
Open right now9 (3 remote)

UX Designer

Posted pay, middle half$41k–$115k
FieldDesign
Postings read2,045
Open right now278 (73 remote)
DemandHigh

The overlap, measured

Skills that appear in both occupations’ posting demand. This is the shared core; everything else on each side is the difference. Each linked skill has its own page with the roles it unlocks.

Switching, both directions

Human Factors EngineerUX Designer

15% skill readiness

Transition estimate: 12–24 mo.

What ux designer postings ask for that human factors engineer profiles usually lack: Interaction Design, Figma, Design Systems, Agile.

Run this direction on the instrument

UX DesignerHuman Factors Engineer

Not scored: the two sets of postings share too few skills in this direction for an honest number. Run the instrument with your own skill set for a personal read.

Open human factors engineer roles right now

The freshest human factors engineer openings on the board, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.

See all 9 human factors engineer jobs

Open ux designer roles right now

The freshest ux designer openings on the board. Same rules: live, tagged to the occupation, linking to the original posting.

See all 278 ux designer jobs

See the whole board for both

287 live roles across the two, freshest first, with posted pay and remote flags where the posting states them.

Related comparisons

Which one do your skills favor?

Run the instrument with your own skill set and both readiness numbers recompute for you. Free, no account.

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Quick answers

Which pays more, human factors engineer or ux designer?

On pay, human factors engineers come out ahead by about $61k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $114k–$165k against $41k–$115k for ux designers. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates. By seniority and country: human factors engineer salary and ux designer salary.

Are human factors engineer and ux designer the same job?

On skills, they are mostly different jobs that happen to share a name or a hallway. The overlap is thin, which is often exactly why people search this pair. The skills both sets of postings want most are Wireframing, Prototyping, User Research, Visual Design, Accessibility.

Can a human factors engineer become a ux designer?

Yes, and the numbers say how far along you already are: a typical human factors engineer profile covers 15% of what ux designer postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 12–24 mo. The instrument lists the exact skills that make up the rest.

How many human factors engineer and ux designer jobs are open right now?

Right now our board has 9 human factors engineer openings and 278 ux designer openings, each linking to the original posting. The board refreshes every night, so the counts move with the market. Hiring the most human factors engineers at the moment: Ypsomed AG (2), Monterey Technologies Inc (1), Coopers Group AG (1). For ux designers: AgileEngine (11), Riotgames (6), Scopely (6).

Method: each occupation’s salary band is the posted 25th to 75th percentile from its own corpus, counting only postings that state pay; readiness is coverage of the destination’s posting-skill weight; shared skills are read from the overlap waterfall. Pairs sharing too few skills are not scored in that direction. Job lists and counts are the live board. Refreshed with the nightly scrape.

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