Engineering Director Overview
Working as an Engineering Director
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an engineering director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $76.59 an hour? That's $159,312 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Engineering Director Do
There are certain skills that many engineering directors 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 analytical skills, math skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an engineering director, we found that a lot of resumes listed 7.5% of engineering directors included product development, while 7.5% of resumes included architecture, and 6.2% of resumes included infrastructure. 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 engineering director job title. But what industry to start with? Most engineering directors actually find jobs in the technology and hospitality industries.
How To Become an Engineering Director
If you're interested in becoming an engineering director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.0% of engineering directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 35.3% of engineering directors have master's degrees. Even though most engineering directors 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 an engineering director. When we researched the most common majors for an engineering director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on engineering director resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an engineering director. In fact, many engineering director jobs require experience in a role such as engineering manager. Meanwhile, many engineering directors also have previous career experience in roles such as chief engineer or project manager.
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Engineering Director Jobs
Engineering Director Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of vice president of engineering you might progress to a role such as vice president of engineering eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title vice president of engineering.
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 an Engineering Director
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Director Ad Platform Engineering Director Ad Platform Engineering | Randstad Randstad | 11/19/2020 11/19/2020 | $180,00011/19/2020 $180,000 |
Management Decisions, Inc. Director of Engineering/Asp.Net/Aws/Sql Director of Engineering/Asp.Net/Aws/Sql | Management Decisions, Inc. Management Decisions, Inc. | 11/15/2020 11/15/2020 | $225,00011/15/2020 $225,000 |
International City Management Director of Engineering Director of Engineering | International City Management International City Management | 10/23/2020 10/23/2020 | $150,00010/23/2020 $150,000 |
Randstad Engineering Director Engineering Director | Randstad Randstad | 10/15/2020 10/15/2020 | $110,00010/15/2020 $110,000 |
Management Decisions, Inc. Director of Data Engineering Director of Data Engineering | Management Decisions, Inc. Management Decisions, Inc. | 10/08/2020 10/08/2020 | $185,00010/08/2020 $185,000 |
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Engineering Director 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 an Engineering Director. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Engineering Director Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Engineering Director 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 Engineering Directors
1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI
2. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
4. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
5. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA
6. University of Washington
Seattle, WA
7. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
9. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
10. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA
Entry Level Jobs For Becoming An Engineering Director
Top Skills For an Engineering Director
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, 7.5% of engineering directors listed product development on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and math skills are important as well.
- Architecture, 6.8%
- Infrastructure, 5.9%
- Project Management, 5.5%
- Software Development, 4.9%
- Customer Service, 4.9%
- Other Skills, 72.0% See All Engineering Director Skills
Best States For an Engineering Director
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an engineering director. The best states for people in this position are California, Maine, Washington, and Louisiana. Engineering directors make the most in California with an average salary of $177,197. Whereas in Maine and Washington, they would average $159,422 and $158,547, respectively. While engineering directors would only make an average of $153,449 in Louisiana, 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. California
$177,197
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$158,547
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$151,668
Avg. Salary
How Do Engineering Director Rate Their Jobs?
Top Engineering Director Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ engineering directors and discovered their number of engineering director opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Cisco Systems was the best, especially with an average salary of $103,399. Marriott International follows up with an average salary of $30,854, and then comes Hyatt Hotels with an average of $34,173. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as an engineering director. The employers include Vmware, C&S Wholesale Grocers, and Comcast
Engineering Director Videos
