There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a principle engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $57.64 an hour? That's $119,893 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many principle 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 math skills, mechanical skills and writing skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a principle engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.2% of principle engineers included architecture, while 5.6% of resumes included java, and 5.5% of resumes included test plans. 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 principle engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most principle engineers actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a principle engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.3% of principle engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 32.9% of principle engineers have master's degrees. Even though most principle 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 principle engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a principle engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on principle engineer resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a principle engineer. In fact, many principle engineer jobs require experience in a role such as senior engineer. Meanwhile, many principle engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as software engineer or engineer.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of senior engineer you might progress to a role such as engineering manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior engineering manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Cambridge, MA
Atlanta, GA
Stanford, CA
Ithaca, NY
Evanston, IL
New York, NY
Cambridge, MA
Durham, NC
Houghton, MI
Pittsburgh, PA
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, 10.2% of principle engineers listed architecture on their resume, but soft skills such as math skills and mechanical skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a principle engineer. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, California, Utah, and Maryland. Principle engineers make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $179,280. Whereas in California and Utah, they would average $147,415 and $131,815, respectively. While principle engineers would only make an average of $131,172 in Maryland, 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
$147,416
Avg. Salary
2. Utah
$131,815
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$179,281
Avg. Salary