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

What is a compliance engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Designers and manufacturers need to know if the products they create are safe, so compliance engineers verify that all product parts meet established standards. They ensure that the products are free from any harmful substances and other hazards. Their purpose is to implement a company's technical compliance capabilities according to local, national, and international standards.

Their duties include ensuring the company's technical compliance with applicable laws and regulations, conducting tests and studies into the company's product compliance, developing strategies and implementation plans for compliance-related matters, managing complaints and technical issues relating to product design and manufacturing, and checking the status of various business operations to ensure compliance with regulations. To qualify for the position, applicants will need a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a similar field. Moreover, they will also need a minimum of three years of work experience. Proficiency in report writing, analysis, and a thorough understanding of regulatory framework is desirable.

The average hourly pay for this position is $44.34, which amounts to $92,234 annually. The career is expected to grow in the near future and create new opportunities across the United States.

ScoreCompliance EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,578

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 13.11%

Black or African American 4.75%

Hispanic or Latino 11.66%

Unknown 3.95%

White 66.35%

Gender

female 19.55%

male 80.45%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a compliance engineer

Explore compliance engineer education requirements

Most common compliance engineer degrees

Bachelor's

71.9 %

Master's

13.4 %

Associate

11.3 %

Start to develop specific compliance engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Regulatory Compliance	10.73%
ISO	9.07%
Project Management	8.81%
UL	5.44%
Product Safety	4.65%

Complete relevant compliance engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New compliance 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 compliance engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real compliance engineer resumes.

Research compliance engineer duties and responsibilities

Facilitate and manage CAPA investigations from creation through verification of effectiveness and closure.
Transition UL safety certifications to CSA and help integrate separate quality system processes into single quality system.
Convert non-EU RoHS compliant products to EU RoHS compliant products from board to component.
Conduct internal and external audits for customers, subcontractors and regulatory agencies (FAA, ISO, etc .).

Prepare your compliance engineer resume

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

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