How To Become A Commissioning Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a commissioning engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Christopher Misorski FASM

The primary function of a Commissioning Engineer is to provide engineering and technical support to projects in the interest of ensuring safety and staying within the budget. To do so, they will often write reports, conduct audits, help with troubleshooting, perform tests and keep track of progress for the entire life cycle of the project.

Essential duties and responsibilities that you will be performing in this capacity include but are not limited to maintaining client relationships, as this is a big part of the job. Nearly all projects will have a third-party client. You will also provide pre-construction guidelines, inspect sites, create relevant documentation about progress and problems, monitor finance, and keep things within the budget.

Essential skills needed for the position include organizational, technical knowledge, interpersonal, communication, problem-solving, and financial acumen. A bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or a related field is desirable. Certain certifications such as taking the fundamentals of engineering (FE) exam and earning a professional engineer license may also aid in getting employment.

The average hourly salary for the position is $38.96, which amounts to $81,033 annually. The career is expected to grow in the near future.

What general advice would you give to a commissioning engineer?

Christopher Misorski FASM

Brunswick Technical Fellow-Materials Product Development & Engineering

My first thoughts on beginning in any field or with any company is “be a sponge” about what the company is doing and what they want you to work on. Do way more listening and observing than talking. Learn the processes used AND the pitfalls/challenges of those processes. It is highly valuable to spend many hours “watching production” to gather first-hand knowledge of what is going on. Ask questions and don’t be quick to criticize a production employees’ explanation of the problem, even if you are quite sure technically that it is not fully correct. Their explanation fits the issues they see with their learned knowledge over time. There are valuable insights there. Also, just because you graduated with a degree, that doesn’t mean your education is finished. Continue to learn by attending relevant conferences for your field, attending training classes, watching webinars, attending local professional society technical meetings and talking to other experts in the field at these meetings. There is a LOT of knowledge out there and many methods of learning more.

ScoreCommissioning EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,374

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 12.31%

Black or African American 3.41%

Hispanic or Latino 9.34%

Unknown 4.60%

White 70.24%

Gender

female 4.61%

male 95.39%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a commissioning engineer

Explore commissioning engineer education requirements

Most common commissioning engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.7 %

Master's

11.7 %

Associate

10.8 %

Start to develop specific commissioning engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
HVAC	18.24%
Test Procedures	10.08%
MEP	6.78%
Electrical Equipment	6.33%
Plumbing	6.04%

Complete relevant commissioning engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New commissioning 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 a commissioning engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real commissioning engineer resumes.

Research commissioning engineer duties and responsibilities

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Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Enforce the NEC, OSHA, UL, IEEE, and other industry standards.

Prepare your commissioning engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your commissioning 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 a commissioning 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 commissioning engineer resume templates

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Apply for commissioning engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a commissioning engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do commissioning engineers rate their job?

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Commissioning engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Pros

Repairing rebuilding and diagnosising laptop and desktop computers. Along with trouble shooting and giving sound advice

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Cons

At times software development team questions on hardware design without looking the code running the stuff irritates Must have some knowledge of coding as well