Cost Engineer Overview
Cost Engineer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cost engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.8 an hour? That's $84,862 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 8,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Cost Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many cost engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed speaking skills, initiative and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a cost engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.3% of cost engineers included project management, while 10.6% of resumes included construction projects, and 6.9% of resumes included cost analysis. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the cost engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most cost engineers actually find jobs in the construction and technology industries.
How To Become a Cost Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a cost engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.2% of cost engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.7% of cost engineers have master's degrees. Even though most cost engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a cost engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a cost engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on cost engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a cost engineer. In fact, many cost engineer jobs require experience in a role such as project engineer. Meanwhile, many cost engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as project manager or engineer.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Cost Engineer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a cost engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project controls engineer, progress to a title such as project manager and then eventually end up with the title contract project manager.
Cost Engineer Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Cost Engineer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Atron Group LLC Product Process Cost Engineer Product Process Cost Engineer | Atron Group LLC Atron Group LLC | 03/23/2021 03/23/2021 | $47,00003/23/2021 $47,000 |
Trenmor LLC Cost Engineer Cost Engineer | Trenmor LLC Trenmor LLC | 03/23/2021 03/23/2021 | $90,31403/23/2021 $90,314 |
Poole & Kent Company of Florida, Inc. Preconstruction and Cost Engineer Preconstruction and Cost Engineer | Poole & Kent Company of Florida, Inc. Poole & Kent Company of Florida, Inc. | 03/22/2021 03/22/2021 | $65,00003/22/2021 $65,000 |
Atron Group LLC Product Process Cost Engineer Product Process Cost Engineer | Atron Group LLC Atron Group LLC | 03/15/2021 03/15/2021 | $47,00003/15/2021 $47,000 |
Viking Range, LLC Cost Engineer Cost Engineer | Viking Range, LLC Viking Range, LLC | 03/09/2021 03/09/2021 | $79,00003/09/2021 $79,000 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Cost Engineer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Cost Engineer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Cost Engineer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Cost Engineer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Cost Engineers
1. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
2. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
5. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
6. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
7. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
8. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
9. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
10. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
Online Courses For Cost Engineer That You May Like
Learn how to estimate costs for any project, how to determine budget and how to use Earned Value Management tools. 3 PDU...
Cost cutting & cost reduction for a profit focused business...
This course introduces the types of cost estimation from the conceptual design phase through the more detailed design phase of a construction project. In addition, the course highlights the importance of controlling costs and how to monitor project cash flow. Students will work on a break-even analysis of construction tasks in a project...
Top Skills For a Cost Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.3% of cost engineers listed project management on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and initiative are important as well.
- Project Management, 13.3%
- Construction Projects, 10.6%
- Cost Analysis, 6.9%
- Project Controls, 6.6%
- Cost Data, 4.6%
- Other Skills, 58.0% See All Cost Engineer Skills
Best States For a Cost Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a cost engineer. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Texas, Massachusetts, and California. Cost engineers make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $95,019. Whereas in Texas and Massachusetts, they would average $94,029 and $92,210, respectively. While cost engineers would only make an average of $90,695 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Massachusetts
$92,210
Avg. Salary
2. Texas
$94,029
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$86,721
Avg. Salary