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

What is a field system engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Ariful Azad Ph.D.

A field system engineer is in charge of designing and developing systems and applications that optimize company operations. He/She identifies and meets the company's system needs. He/She also creates prototypes and test structures. Apart from this, he/she troubleshoots issues and resolves them. As a field system engineer, you are responsible for developing guidelines, safety policies, and standards. You provide system configurations and network system services. Also, you create an agile and cost-effective plan to meet business requirements.

Employers require a minimum of a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field. A successful field system engineer possesses skills like analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills. They collect data from different sources and then interpret it to reach a logical conclusion beneficial to the business. You must be able to relay your plans and ideas, and must be able to effectively solve problems promptly. A field system engineer earns about $77,768 on average yearly.

What general advice would you give to a field system engineer?

Dr. Ariful Azad Ph.D.

Director of Graduate Studies for the Dept. of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Assistant Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University Bloomington

Look for a job that you would enjoy doing, even if it takes some time to find such a position. Internships are great to explore various options.

ScoreField System EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.1

Avg. Salary $91,282

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 8.82%

Black or African American 8.91%

Hispanic or Latino 12.60%

Unknown 5.09%

White 64.27%

Gender

female 7.37%

male 92.63%

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

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a field system engineer

Explore field system engineer education requirements

Most common field system engineer degrees

Bachelor's

56.4 %

Associate

28.4 %

Master's

6.1 %

Start to develop specific field system engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
PLC	26.40%
Troubleshoot	10.46%
Customer Sites	7.39%
Control Systems	7.38%
System Upgrades	6.49%

Complete relevant field system engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New field system 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 field system engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real field system engineer resumes.

Research field system engineer duties and responsibilities

Create service requests in CRM application to reflect report issues and manage customer expectations throughout escalation and/or resolution.
Build, configure, troubleshoot networks with Cisco routers and switches.
Configure & repair a variety of Cisco switches, routers, hubs and ATM Cisco devices.
Experience with CISCO commands and setting up hyper terminals into routers and switches to enable configuration, troubleshooting, and integration.

Prepare your field system engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your field system 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 field system 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 field system engineer resume templates

Build a professional field system 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 field system engineer resume.

Apply for field system engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a field system engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do field system engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Field system engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2022

Cons

There was nothing to like. Everyone was polite an hard workers

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020

Pros

I love the fact that I have self taught myself by trouble shooting issues for fifteen years while working in corrections as the Video court officer with no prior experince or degree