How To Become An Aviation Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is an aviation engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an aviation engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $46.17 an hour? That's $96,024 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAviation EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $96,024

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.30%

Asian 10.87%

Black or African American 4.23%

Hispanic or Latino 11.35%

Unknown 4.46%

White 68.78%

Gender

female 19.23%

male 80.77%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an aviation engineer

Explore aviation engineer education requirements

Most common aviation engineer degrees

Bachelor's

56.4 %

Associate

23.1 %

Master's

12.8 %

Start to develop specific aviation engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
FAA	95.50%
Construction Drawings	4.50%

Complete relevant aviation engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New aviation engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an aviation engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real aviation engineer resumes.

Research aviation engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage projects and design airport improvements in accordance with FAA requirements.
Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Involve major excavation and embankment, new lighting, pavement and grading design, and incorporating FAA standards in each aspect.
Audit technical documentation relate to launch window and trajectory design to meet NASA contract specifications for safety mission requirement constraints.

Prepare your aviation engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your aviation engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an aviation engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable aviation engineer resume templates

Build a professional aviation engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your aviation engineer resume.