Operations engineers work in different settings and roles where they optimize the overall efficiency of an organization. They ensure the organization's operations like manufacturing and shipping work effectively. Likewise, they ensure they meet factory and management specifications. They oversee any repairs or upgrades to operations machinery. Similarly, they work with the various heads of departments to optimize their operations systems. They perform routine inspections of machinery for defects and inform department heads of maintenance schedules.
For this role, you must have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related discipline. You must have two or more years of relevant work experience. Most employers prefer a professional engineer license and a valid driver's license. You can find employment in the transportation, manufacturing, and technology industries. You must possess problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills. Operations engineers are paid about $89,329 in a year. Their salary is between $61,000 and $131,000.
How to Become an Operations Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an operations engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.17 an hour? That's $87,705 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Operations Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many operations engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, listening skills and problem-solving skills.
How To Become an Operations Engineer
If you're interested in becoming an operations engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 61.6% of operations engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.0% of operations engineers have master's degrees. Even though most operations engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an operations engineer. When we researched the most common majors for an operations engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on operations engineer resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an operations engineer. In fact, many operations engineer jobs require experience in a role such as engineer. Meanwhile, many operations engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as maintenance technician or systems administrator.
Operations Engineer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an operations engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project manager, progress to a title such as owner and then eventually end up with the title senior facilities manager.
Average Salary for an Operations Engineer
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Operations Engineers
1. Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI • Private
2. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Private
3. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
5. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
6. Iowa State University of Science and Technology
Ames, IA • Private
7. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
8. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
9. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
10. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
Top Skills For an Operations Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.6% of operations engineers listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and listening skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Operations Engineer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Operations Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Operations Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Operations Engineer Demographics
Operations Engineer Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among operations engineers, 10.1% of them are women, while 89.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among operations engineers is White, which makes up 75.9% of all operations engineers.
- The most common foreign language among operations engineers is Spanish at 45.2%.
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Best States For an Operations Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an operations engineer. The best states for people in this position are California, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington. Operations engineers make the most in California with an average salary of $106,842. Whereas in Connecticut and Maryland, they would average $99,799 and $96,285, respectively. While operations engineers would only make an average of $95,894 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$106,842
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$95,894
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$103,721
Avg. Salary
How Do Operations Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Operations Engineer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ operations engineers and discovered their number of operations engineer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Amazon was the best, especially with an average salary of $111,262. Comcast follows up with an average salary of $70,449, and then comes JLL with an average of $55,260. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as an operations engineer. The employers include California Resources, Autodesk, and Windstream
Most Common Employers For Operations Engineer
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meta | $136,410 | $65.58 | 79 |
| 2 | Apple | $120,172 | $57.77 | 52 |
| 3 | Intuit | $118,655 | $57.05 | 148 |
| 4 | Amazon | $111,262 | $53.49 | 399 |
| 5 | Microsoft | $109,624 | $52.70 | 156 |
| 6 | $106,813 | $51.35 | 110 | |
| 7 | Ameriprise Financial | $99,940 | $48.05 | 43 |
| 8 | Raytheon Technologies | $99,064 | $47.63 | 43 |
| 9 | Lockheed Martin | $95,581 | $45.95 | 71 |
| 10 | CSG | $94,349 | $45.36 | 40 |
Operations Engineer Videos
Becoming an Operations Engineer FAQs
Can everyone become an engineer?
No, not everyone can become an engineer. It takes time, dedication and a bachelor's degree from an accredited engineering program at a college or university. After graduating, you can get licensed to work as a Professional Engineer.
What are five engineering careers?
Five engineering careers include civil, chemical, mechanical, electrical, and industrial. Some of the five main types of engineering have their own subfields. Environmental engineering, for example, is often described as a subset of civil engineering.
What is the difference between engineering and operations?
The difference between engineering and operations has to do with the focus and scope of the job. Operations management, for example, deals with the design and management of products, processes, services, and supply chains.