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Job outlook for materials research engineers in the United States
Are materials research engineer jobs in demand?
Materials research engineer job and salary trends over time
Materials research engineer jobs over time
Materials research engineer job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 975 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 1,120 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 1,215 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 1,220 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 1,232 | 0.00% |
Average materials research engineer salary over time
Materials research engineer salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $87,100 | $41.87 | +2.4% |
| 2025 | $85,023 | $40.88 | +1.0% |
| 2024 | $84,140 | $40.45 | --2.3% |
| 2023 | $86,162 | $41.42 | +1.4% |
| 2022 | $84,978 | $40.85 | +2.2% |
Materials research engineer jobs by state
Most common states for materials research engineers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 217 | 31% |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 316 | 24% |
| 3 | Delaware | 961,939 | 217 | 23% |
| 4 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,352 | 22% |
| 5 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 924 | 22% |
| 6 | Vermont | 623,657 | 138 | 22% |
| 7 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,764 | 21% |
| 8 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 1,199 | 21% |
| 9 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,057 | 19% |
| 10 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 594 | 19% |
| 11 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 195 | 18% |
| 12 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 557 | 16% |
| 13 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 305 | 16% |
| 14 | Arizona | 7,016,270 | 1,055 | 15% |
| 15 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,016 | 15% |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 848 | 15% |
| 17 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 87 | 15% |
| 18 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 1,756 | 14% |
| 19 | Michigan | 9,962,311 | 1,375 | 14% |
| 20 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 107 | 14% |
Most common cities for materials research engineers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urbana | 1 | 2% | $78,542 |
| 2 | Dearborn | 1 | 1% | $86,049 |
| 3 | San Jose | 1 | 0% | $92,471 |
Materials Research Engineer job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of materials research engineer experts
University of California, Santa Barbara
Purdue University
University of Southern Mississippi
North Dakota State University
University of Arkansas
Binghamton University
Iowa State University
Synedgen
Omar Saleh
Chair, Materials DepartmentUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Materials Sciences
What general advice would you give to a Materials Research Engineer?
Omar Saleh: Technical skills related to the subject areas mentioned above will become important and prevalent. Computational skills specifically are more important now than ten years ago, and this will stay the same in the next 3-5 years.
What Materials Research Engineer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Omar Saleh: It is widely agreed that the importance of materials science will only grow in the next several decades, so it is a great time to get started in the field. Growth is expected because materials science is posed to address many of the most challenging problems in society.
What will help Materials Research Engineers increase their earning potential?
Omar Saleh: I think there is a clear answer to this, but I don't really think it is the correct long-term decision. The short term answer is to develop machine-learning/AI skills, as those skills are very highly-valued at the moment.
What general advice would you give to a Materials Research Engineer?
Nikhilesh Chawla: Prioritize your education. Having a Bachelor’s is great but you will be able to do much more interesting work AND have a higher salary with a Master’s or PhD.
What Materials Research Engineer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Nikhilesh Chawla: Make sure you are passionate about what you do. Great careers should not feel like a ‘job’. Try to learn as much as you can, be curious, and engaged. Networking with folks in your field and choosing 1-2 or mentors to help guide you would be good too.
What will help Materials Research Engineers increase their earning potential?
Nikhilesh Chawla: Materials Science and Engineering has changed quite a bit in the last few years. In a lot of companies, it used to be a lot of fabrication of a material followed by testing. Now, we have amazing microscopy as well as computation tools. AI is becoming an important part of our field, as is x-ray microscopy to nondestructively study materials under stress, thermal, or electrical conditions.
What general advice would you give to a Materials Research Engineer?
Dr. James Rawlins: The career field is ripe for students that want to solve problems and be rewarded for doing so consistently. There is a current shortage of STEM related recent graduates based upon both current retiring positions and future needs. Deloitte estimates that there will be 4.6 million manufacturing jobs to fill between 2018 and 2028. There will be a shortfall of 2.4 million and that will drive opportunities and salaries higher, estimated to be 1.7X average all position salary growth (onetonline.org) for those that have STEM related degrees. Polymer scientists, engineers and plastics engineers are highly sought after and needed.
What Materials Research Engineer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. James Rawlins: We graduate polymer scientist and engineers those degrees are slightly different from plastics engineers but also very similar. Our students careers would be focused on utilizing new and legacy technology to deliver new performance and novel applications of polymeric materials. We present skills that allow our students to work in almost every area of research, development and engineering that is related to societal needs. Those that prefer to work daily in a laboratory would be able to do so in most career fields, testing materials, formulating new products and often being the technical lead with customer focused projects to match their needs and expectations. Those that prefer to move from a laboratory to sales and marketing also do so very successfully. The transition from inventing, making and testing polymeric materials happens often for those that prefer to sell and interface with customers. These bachelor degreed scientist and engineers would often travel to customers, explain technical projects and timelines associated with research and development.
What will help Materials Research Engineers increase their earning potential?
Dr. James Rawlins: Historically, our students love their chosen careers, with the versatility to be in laboratories for product development, new materials synthesis and research, or in sales, marketing, technical marketing, management, production there are plenty of mobility, growth and travel opportunities. Some of our students want small to medium sized companies with lots of diverse challenges and an exciting pace while there are also many exciting opportunities in medium to large companies with many chances for mentoring, to be mentored and to grow within a larger organization. There are plenty of options for all of the varied career outlooks and perspectives.
Andriy Voronov
ProfessorNorth Dakota State University
Coatings and Polymeric Materials Department
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Materials Research Engineers?
Andriy Voronov: I think most graduate programs in materials science offer opportunities for interdisciplinary research and educational activities. Their philosophy is to educate and prepare job prospects by providing advanced aspects of work, including extensive collaborations between departments, programs, institutions or with industrial partners. Offering specialized trainings in various areas, graduate programs aim to merge basic and applied research within the certain field. With this said, quit often graduate programs work also with leading industrial scientists who help to provide to the graduates new and practical directions to become competitive at the job market. Answering your question more specifically, graduate programs do target as complementary and comprehensive education as possible. It will be interesting to hear from graduates what courses they took have the biggest impact for them, as well as if they need any additional certifications/licenses and which specifically.
What technical skills for a Materials Research Engineer stand out to employers?
Rick Wise Ph.D.: Materials Science and Engineering graduates with MS and/or PhD degrees are expected to have a working knowledge of materials characterization equipment and how to interpret measurement results. Most will have an in-depth knowledge of materials used in a particular field (electronics, photonics, nanomaterials, energy, biological, etc.), in the fabricatoin/processing of those materials, and how to control and optimize the properties to meet the desired application. Especially valued is the capability to combine that knowledge with creativity to bring about innovations which help solve problems and create markets.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Materials Research Engineers?
Rick Wise Ph.D.: We are a graduate program where students must complete research in order to receive their MS or PhD degree. Except those involved in computational materials science, most of our students will have effectively lost 6-9 months of time in their research labs due to COVID-19 access restrictions and limitations on number of students allowed in the lab. Although, I do not believe this will necessarily be an enduring impact, it will delay graduation timelines for many of them by 1-2 semesters. Consequently, one enduring impact will be the lost salary from this delay in entering the job market.
What's a day at work look like for a Materials Research Engineer?
Rick Wise Ph.D.: Materials Science and Engineering jobs spread across many industries but typically include hands-on, in-person activities in materials synthesis, characterization, development, and manufacture. As in academic environments, COVID restrictions in industry and government lab environments will necessarily slow the learning curve as recent graduates transition into these jobs. Although by necessity, the availability and quality of virtual training has improved, it does not replace the value of hands-on training and in-person mentoring while learning the required tasks of the job. Several recent graduates have had most interaction with their new co-workers online which changes the dynamics of the socialization process into the company culture. Many companies have learned to adapt, made sure new hires are engaged, and made changes to allow safe return to the work environment. This hybrid arrangement seems to be the norm at present.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Materials Research Engineer job market given the pandemic?
Junghyun Cho Ph.D.: I think we will see more jobs in the field of autonomous systems, data science, and biomedical engineering because of the pandemic. Materials science and engineering will play a critical role in or be closely related to these fields.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Materials Research Engineer job market given the pandemic?
Dr. L. Scott Chumbley: I just think companies will be somewhat reluctant to hire initially. Once things get moving again, I’d like to think there will be more openings because, I think, a lot of people have retired early because of the virus.
What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Materials Research Engineers in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. L. Scott Chumbley: Obviously, now that everybody has been forced to use video conferencing and networking, I think companies will use that more to save money on travel.
Will there be an increase or decrease in demand for Materials Research Engineers in the next 5 years?
Dr. L. Scott Chumbley: It depends. Trump cut a lot of regulations that just killed businesses and did many things to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. As long as those changes aren't reversed, I think we'll see a boom in hiring. If the new administration decides to return to how things were before Trump, I think growth will be slow, if at all.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Materials Research Engineer job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Shenda Baker: The primary job market for 2020 materials scientists moving into their careers, my crystal ball reveals, will still be strong. Unlike retail, people are still purchasing and innovating goods. However, the delivery mechanisms are changing.
This past year has seen people and markets looking for new, more sustainable materials for packaging and storage, for communications and marketing, and for transportation and shipping. The research enterprise is generally strong, but many smaller companies are conserving cash until they can see the corner on COVID. Companies/industries that are adaptive and able to identify spaces into which they fill a need will be the strong ones out the other side. Looks like in the era of COVID, size matters, and having the ability to absorb losses in unanticipated ways is helpful.
What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Materials Research Engineers in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Shenda Baker: Obviously, anything that allows people to have flexibility in work location, as well as much more widespread use of electronic notebooks for record keeping, will be more prevalent. Growing and continued focus on sustainable, full life-cycle-managed products.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Materials Research Engineers?
Dr. Shenda Baker: Certainly, how we work will continue to change. Graduates will need to be comfortable working in more controlled lab environments, more time spent on cleaning and self-awareness, communicating remotely, and being self-motivated. Competition for jobs will only get more challenging, so materials science grads will need to be able to demonstrate their willingness to work hard, to learn, to act without daily oversight, and to communicate very effectively with supervisors or staff through whatever mechanisms are available. That is what will make them more attractive.
Research and lab work will not go away and will remain critical in addressing health and lifestyle choices we all will make in light of the pandemic and its future impact. Maintaining or changing the nature of collaborative creativity and the spontaneity of a coffee break, drink with colleagues, or sofa-chats at a conference will be hard, but our grads will figure out new ways to do it.