How To Become A Project Controls Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a project controls engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Brian Denton Ph.D.

As a Project Control Engineer, you will develop, implement, and maintain cost controls on a project. You will be the planner and scheduler on projects. Project Control Engineers work in many different fields, including construction and manufacturing. Specified duties vary depending on the industry. To be a Project Control Engineer, you need excellent IT skills, initiative, organization skills, decision-making, and communication skills.

You will need to work within budgets and get projects done on time. You will also need to execute schedule changes, support administrative and organization activities, and perform cost analysis and estimates. The average base pay for a Project Control Engineer is $84,000 per year. A bachelor's degree in engineering is required, plus experience in maintaining engineering equipment, installing, designing, and developing engineering equipment.

What's a day at work look like for a project controls engineer?

Brian Denton Ph.D.

Professor and Department Chair, University of Michigan

It really depends on the specific job, but a common theme for grads from our department would include analyzing data to understand operations of an industrial system, working with non-engineers to develop an understanding of business goals, and developing a data driven model that can be used to support decision making.

ScoreProject Controls EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $86,685

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 14.38%

Black or African American 4.87%

Hispanic or Latino 11.34%

Unknown 4.71%

White 64.52%

Gender

female 19.66%

male 80.34%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.2

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a project controls engineer

Explore project controls engineer education requirements

Most common project controls engineer degrees

Bachelor's

73.5 %

Master's

14.0 %

Associate

8.8 %

Start to develop specific project controls engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Controls	12.20%
Project Management	9.40%
Construction Management	6.74%
Primavera P6	5.29%
Control Systems	3.19%

Complete relevant project controls engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New project controls 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 project controls engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real project controls engineer resumes.

Research project controls engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage accruals, cash flows, and invoices for $25MM total install cost EPC project.
Manage multiple projects involving both internal and vendor resources affecting national production infrastructure.
Create and maintain CPM schedules for engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning phases on various projects.
Develop and improve PMO process methodologies.

Prepare your project controls engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your project controls engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a project controls engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable project controls engineer resume templates

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Apply for project controls engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a project controls 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 project controls engineers rate their job?

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Project controls engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019

Pros

I have my hands on the pulse of the project or at least our portion of the project and keeping others on track when I see a constraint . But I think the thing Iike the most about the job is I'm not responsible for anything but the data I receive from others, if something doesn't get done, i can't be blamed. I just calls'em as I see'um and that's it.

Cons

There isn't much i don't like with the exception that I'm not thrilled about giving presentations or hosting meetings. I don't mind because it's part of the job in some companies, but it really isn't that bad.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019