How To Become A Fire Protection Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a fire protection engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Fire protection engineers design systems, products, and procedures that prevent fire damage. Their job is to research the causes of fires and decide on the best fire protection methods. They help organizations defend property against fire hazards.

Daily, these engineers use their knowledge to save lives before fires occur. Many industries hire fire protection engineers, who often work full time at refineries, industrial plants, fire departments, architectural firms, or any sector where dangerous chemicals or processes are used.

While their work determines a fire protection engineer's day-to-day duties and responsibilities, many core tasks are associated with the role, including, but not limited to, performing fire prevention investigations and preparing training samples and reports.

Fire protection engineers have strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Employers typically seek candidates with at least three years of fire safety experience and a bachelor's or master's degree in engineering.

ScoreFire Protection EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.4

Avg. Salary $82,467

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 11.60%

Black or African American 4.67%

Hispanic or Latino 11.48%

Unknown 3.94%

White 68.13%

Gender

female 11.36%

male 88.64%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fire protection engineer

Explore fire protection engineer education requirements

Most common fire protection engineer degrees

Bachelor's

69.6 %

Master's

12.1 %

Associate

11.4 %

Start to develop specific fire protection engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Fire Protection	26.44%
NFPA	10.28%
Revit	9.12%
Plumbing	4.23%
DOE	3.51%

Complete relevant fire protection engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New fire protection 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 fire protection engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real fire protection engineer resumes.

Research fire protection engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Add an encryption policy that is missing in the remaining offsite tapes using built-in EMC tools.
Monitor devices and troubleshoot performance issues.
Draft new layouts develop by MEP designers.

Prepare your fire protection engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your fire protection 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 fire protection 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 fire protection engineer resume templates

Build a professional fire protection 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 fire protection engineer resume.