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

What is a lead building engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The main role of a lead building engineer is to direct, train, assist, and supervise teams of building engineers, subcontractors, and maintenance staff for daily building operations.

In relation to bringing the work area in compliance to safety and operational rules and regulations, they monitor all building systems, including fire and life safety, energy management, HVAC, electrical and plumbing procedures, and maintenance. The development and implementation of preventative maintenance programs are also in their lengthy to-do list.

With the scope of work, an aspiring lead building engineer must be detail-oriented, analytical, and skilled at conveying information and ideas.

Some of the most promising lead building engineers work at Boeing, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin. And for those who want to follow their footsteps, a college degree related to engineering technology is the educational requirement to open the path to this job opportunity.

ScoreLead Building EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.4

Avg. Salary $82,547

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.0

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 26.56%

Black or African American 4.60%

Hispanic or Latino 8.36%

Unknown 4.85%

White 55.46%

Gender

female 14.97%

male 85.03%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress level

4.0

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lead building engineer

Explore lead building engineer education requirements

Most common lead building engineer degrees

Bachelor's

39.9 %

High School Diploma

18.9 %

Associate

18.5 %

Start to develop specific lead building engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Ladders	15.90%
Preventive Maintenance	12.98%
Plumbing	12.86%
Emergency Situations	12.52%
Roofing	10.52%

Complete relevant lead building engineer training and internships

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

Research lead building engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage high-level building engineering team on safety systems in accordance with all building codes and regulations including OSHA.
Manage Linux staging and testing environments and also automate application packaging and deployments.
Employ a test-driven development strategy to create an interactive webpage using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Oversee all building systems including fire and life safety, energy management, HVAC, electrical and plumbing procedures and maintenance.

Get lead building engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a lead building engineer. The most common roles before becoming a lead building engineer include building engineer, maintenance technician team lead and builder.

Prepare your lead building engineer resume

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

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