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

What is a radio engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a radio engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $47.43 an hour? That's $98,659 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 9,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRadio EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $98,659

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 14.30%

Black or African American 4.94%

Hispanic or Latino 11.56%

Unknown 4.73%

White 64.29%

Gender

female 11.93%

male 88.07%

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 radio engineer

Explore radio engineer education requirements

Most common radio engineer degrees

Bachelor's

66.7 %

Associate

18.1 %

Master's

8.2 %

Start to develop specific radio engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
RF	26.44%
Java	13.41%
FM	13.27%
Transmitters	7.81%
FCC	6.87%

Complete relevant radio engineer training and internships

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

Research radio engineer duties and responsibilities

Process improvement efforts and/or other opportunities to automate these processes with computer applications with C++ and/or Java where applicable.
Create custom software products to support a variety of SCSI storage devices for SVR4 UNIX.
Design and develop RF/Analog broadband cable distribution equipment.
Execute event analysis and provide solutions to meet KPI requirements.

Apply for radio engineer jobs

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

-/5

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Radio engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Basically I love Electronics, then being radio station engineer am happy to be part of those who pass am information to the world

Cons

well in our part of the world Nigeria , most of the executives don't appreciate Engineers, they felt that engineers are too much.