engineer vs operator

engineer and operator both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
engineer	Yes	No	Yes	No
operator	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, operator is a hypernym of engineer; that is, operator is a word with a broader meaning than engineer:

Other hypernyms of engineer include manipulator.

engineer (noun)	operator (noun)
a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems	an agent that operates some apparatus or machine
the operator of a railway locomotive	someone who owns or operates a business
	a shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties
	a speculator who trades aggressively on stock or commodity markets
	(mathematics) a symbol or function representing a mathematical operation

engineer (verb)	operator (verb)
plan and direct (a complex undertaking)
design as an engineer