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<p>That is kind of hard to say since it will depend on each person. R&D departments are specifically tasked with research and development in a company, meaning taking brand new idea and researching them to the point of usability and then incorporating them into at least the preliminary design of a product. Depending on the company, sometimes these departments pass the prototype-level designs on to the rest of the company to refine, and sometimes they will finish a product themselves.</p>
<p>With that in mind, there are really two broad groups of engineers in R&D departments. First, you have the actual researchers. They direct the research efforts, dealing mostly with the new ideas side of things, and generally need an advanced degree, particularly a PhD, since research is not a skill you will really pick up as an undergraduate and only the basics as a Masters student. BS-level employees in those sorts of groups are likely to be playing more of a support role rather than planning and directing the heavy research projects.</p>
<p>The rest of the engineers not specifically in research groups are not a lot different than the other engineers in the company save the fact that they tend to have more experience or have shown to have a set of skills unique to that of their counterparts in the wider company. They are otherwise doing the same kind of design and/or maintenance work as the rest of the engineers, but specifically on these new, cutting-edge products. It is not uncommon for those guys to split their tasks between “R&D” jobs and more standard jobs in the company because the only real difference between those tasks is how new the products are and (potentially) how demanding the work is.</p>