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

What is a drilling fluids engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Working closely with a drilling rig engineer, a drilling fluids engineer helps with fluids pumping, fluids mixing, and liquids testing. Aside from this physical work in the field, a drilling fluids engineer is also expected to make reports for fluid properties acquired along with their recommendations.

As a drilling fluids engineer, one should have good analytical skills to be able to gather information and interpret data for stakeholders to understand. Creativity is also important in this field of work to be able to come up with solutions or alternatives when the need arises. Other important skills are math skills to help visualize data and solve for the unknown.

A drilling fluids engineer earns a salary of $83,006 on the average, and one does not need to have a college degree to become a drilling fluids engineer. Most employers look at the skills the applicants possess, but some consider previous experiences like roles such as derrick hand or field service technician.

ScoreDrilling Fluids EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $89,974

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%

Asian 17.04%

Black or African American 4.30%

Hispanic or Latino 10.79%

Unknown 4.75%

White 62.83%

Gender

female 5.04%

male 94.96%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a drilling fluids engineer

Explore drilling fluids engineer education requirements

Most common drilling fluids engineer degrees

Bachelor's

67.8 %

Associate

13.3 %

Master's

6.6 %

Start to develop specific drilling fluids engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Drilling Fluid	14.78%
Fluid Systems	14.52%
Polymer	7.52%
Logistics	6.62%
CFD	6.29%

Complete relevant drilling fluids engineer training and internships

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

Research drilling fluids engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Train on operations of OBM & WBM applications and products.
General responsibilities in the field for analyzing WBM and OBM to drill horizontal wells.
Develop a system to convey wireline tools on lateral open hole wells without pumping down.

Prepare your drilling fluids engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your drilling fluids 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 drilling fluids 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 drilling fluids engineer resume templates

Build a professional drilling fluids 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 drilling fluids engineer resume.