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

What is a plant safety engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a plant safety engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $41.49 an hour? That's $86,305 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePlant Safety EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.7

Avg. Salary $86,305

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 9.63%

Black or African American 4.93%

Hispanic or Latino 12.12%

Unknown 3.98%

White 69.17%

Gender

female 6.45%

male 93.55%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a plant safety engineer

Explore plant safety engineer education requirements

Most common plant safety engineer degrees

Bachelor's

67.3 %

Master's

15.4 %

Associate

5.8 %

Start to develop specific plant safety engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
OSHA	26.62%
Safety Policies	15.02%
Safety Inspections	10.30%
PPE	8.43%
Safety Engineering	6.31%

Complete relevant plant safety engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New plant safety 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 plant safety engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real plant safety engineer resumes.

Research plant safety engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead cross functional team on FMEA analysis, root cause analysis to improve the existing process.
Facilitate OSHA training for all power plant employees and outside contractors.
Participate on ZCLP PSM audit teams that conduct compliance audits in Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky manufacturing sites.
Develop and coordinate departmental ergonomics project that contribute to equipment design changes, business system modifications and revise employee work habits.

Apply for plant safety engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a plant safety engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do plant safety engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

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Plant safety engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

Working as a Process Safety Engineer translates your internal intention of working for sustainable development for the future generations and Indeed an amalgam of the utilization of engineering and social skills as well

Cons

Sometimes human factors influences the beauty of this career path