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

What is a laboratory engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Maryam Farahani

Those with a passion for engineering have endless career opportunities they may consider, including a career as a laboratory engineer. Working a standard full-time schedule, a laboratory engineer specializes in designing and developing laboratory operations tools and machinery. Laboratory engineers aim to achieve an efficient and smooth workplace. Routinely, laboratory engineers design research programs and perform extensive research to identify problem areas in the lab setting. They check on systems to identify areas that need improvement and perform corrective measures promptly and efficiently. Laboratory engineers provide technical support in the lab and lead reporting activities.

The standard level of education required to become a laboratory engineer is a bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline. In exchange for their expertise, laboratory engineers can earn an average annual salary of $70,000. The position of a laboratory engineer offers the potential not only to earn well but also to enhance your technical and scientific credentials as you work on a range of projects in collaboration with other professionals.

What general advice would you give to a laboratory engineer?

Maryam Farahani

Engineering Instructor, Bakersfield College

Thinking about the fields they want to experience or try. And to be intentional about their job search. The best advice is learning as much as they can about what company offers. Visualizing themselves in the next 5 years as a starting point. Do they want to travel a lot, or be in management positions? Do they want to be subject matter expert, or a hands-on engineer or technologist? Their goal may change as they progress in their career but having one makes a big difference in their career choices and keeping them on track.

ScoreLaboratory EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.2

Avg. Salary $92,242

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 14.58%

Black or African American 3.31%

Hispanic or Latino 8.93%

Unknown 4.57%

White 68.50%

Gender

female 13.67%

male 86.33%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a laboratory engineer

Explore laboratory engineer education requirements

Most common laboratory engineer degrees

Bachelor's

68.1 %

Associate

14.2 %

Master's

10.7 %

Start to develop specific laboratory engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
C++	4.92%
Lab Environment	4.27%
UL	4.26%
Test Equipment	4.26%
Lab Equipment	4.13%

Complete relevant laboratory engineer training and internships

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

Research laboratory engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage test servers and clients running Solaris, Linux, XP, and BSD.
Manage test lab HVAC, and electrical load levels to protect and preserve assets.
Manage HVAC test construction in accordance with ASHRAE standards and maintain lab- testing schedule.
Manage multiple mobile telemetry stations consisting of RF receiving equipment, data processing front end, and display software.

Prepare your laboratory engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your laboratory engineer resume.

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Choose from 10+ customizable laboratory engineer resume templates

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