How To Become An Engineering Group Leader: What It Is and Career Path

What is an engineering group leader and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Yi Yang PhD

The average engineering group leader salary is $102,340. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an mechanical engineering major. It usually takes more than 10 years of experience to become an engineering group leader. Engineering group leaders with a Six Sigma Green Belt certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 4,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an engineering group leader?

Yi Yang PhD

Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University - Abington

For new graduates beginning their careers in engineering, I would advise them to consider the broader impact of their work and look for opportunities to expand their management potential. While engineering is a highly technical field, it's important to recognize the value of leadership roles in preserving a culture of innovation. By taking on these positions, you can help ensure that companies prioritize long-term innovation over short-term gains (cutting R&D to boost the balance sheet), thus preserving the engineering culture that drives meaningful progress.

ScoreEngineering Group LeaderUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $102,340

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.16%

Asian 14.93%

Black or African American 3.10%

Hispanic or Latino 8.86%

Unknown 4.67%

White 68.28%

Gender

female 12.80%

male 87.20%

Age - 48

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 - 48

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an engineering group leader

Explore engineering group leader education requirements

Most common engineering group leader degrees

Bachelor's

69.4 %

Master's

16.1 %

Associate

9.8 %

Start to develop specific engineering group leader skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	10.00%
Project Management	8.47%
Continuous Improvement	8.44%
R	7.22%
Architecture	6.68%

Complete relevant engineering group leader training and internships

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

Research engineering group leader duties and responsibilities

Manage scheduling and implementation of technology for applications migrations to cloud, ensuring consistency adherence to university practices.
Establish and conduct PLC fundamentals training program for employees and customers.
Create design and implementation blueprints and prototype the new WSDL API.
Test, modify and troubleshot electronic and PLC equipment to component level.

Get engineering group leader experience

Generally, it takes more than 10 years to become an engineering group leader. The most common roles before becoming an engineering group leader include process engineer, engineer team lead and design engineer.

Prepare your engineering group leader resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your engineering group leader resume.

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