Plant engineers oversee a manufacturing plant's electrical and mechanical needs. They ensure that the plant is operating smoothly by planning and coordinating activities concerned with the design and construction of equipment and machinery in an industrial plant. They earn a median salary of $85,000 annually or $41 per hour.
Plant engineers can work in various organizations, and as such, their duties may vary. However, they are typically tasked with monitoring and maintaining plant equipment and machinery as well as reviewing project plans to ensure that timelines and blueprints are accurate. Due to the nature of the job, their analytical, math, and mechanical skills are exceptional.
Plant engineers mostly hold a bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical, or industrial engineering. Although, larger organizations may require a higher academic degree. On-the-job experience in a similar field is preferred by some employers. Also, it will be best to get some licenses and certifications, although these vary by state.
Plant Engineer Overview
Plant Engineer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a plant engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.9 an hour? That's $85,064 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 1,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Plant Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many plant 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 leadership skills, time-management skills and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a plant engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.2% of plant engineers included procedures, while 9.0% of resumes included plant equipment, and 5.2% of resumes included hvac. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the plant engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most plant engineers actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
How To Become a Plant Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a plant engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.0% of plant engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.1% of plant engineers have master's degrees. Even though most plant 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 a plant engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a plant engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on plant engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a plant engineer. In fact, many plant engineer jobs require experience in a role such as project engineer. Meanwhile, many plant engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as process engineer or maintenance supervisor.
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Plant 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, a plant engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project engineer, progress to a title such as senior manufacturing engineer and then eventually end up with the title manufacturing engineering manager.
Plant Engineer Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Plant Engineer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Kern Comunity College District Plant Engineer Plant Engineer | Kern Comunity College District Kern Comunity College District | 05/28/2021 05/28/2021 | $59,72105/28/2021 $59,721 |
Owens-Illinois Global Glass Plant Engineer Plant Engineer | Owens-Illinois Global Glass Owens-Illinois Global Glass | 05/21/2021 05/21/2021 | $96,80005/21/2021 $96,800 |
Owens-Illinois Global Glass Plant Engineer Plant Engineer | Owens-Illinois Global Glass Owens-Illinois Global Glass | 05/21/2021 05/21/2021 | $96,80005/21/2021 $96,800 |
Kern Comunity College District Plant Engineer Plant Engineer | Kern Comunity College District Kern Comunity College District | 05/15/2021 05/15/2021 | $59,72105/15/2021 $59,721 |
Xcel Energy Plant Engineer or Staff) Plant Engineer or Staff) | Xcel Energy Xcel Energy | 05/14/2021 05/14/2021 | $59,50005/14/2021 $59,500 |
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Plant Engineer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Plant Engineer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Plant Engineer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Plant Engineer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Plant Engineers
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
6. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
7. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
10. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
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Top Skills For a Plant 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, 12.2% of plant engineers listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as leadership skills and time-management skills are important as well.
- Procedures, 12.2%
- Plant Equipment, 9.0%
- Hvac, 5.2%
- Project Management, 4.0%
- Continuous Improvement, 3.8%
- Other Skills, 65.8% See All Plant Engineer Skills
Best States For a Plant Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a plant engineer. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, California, Nevada, and Rhode Island. Plant engineers make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $88,355. Whereas in California and Nevada, they would average $84,747 and $83,891, respectively. While plant engineers would only make an average of $83,309 in Rhode Island, 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. Oregon
$88,355
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$83,891
Avg. Salary
3. Utah
$80,225
Avg. Salary
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