Most Research Engineers list "Python," "Hardware," and "R" as skills on their resumes. We go into more details on the most important Research Engineer responsibilities here:
See the full list of Research Engineer skills.
After discovering the most helpful skills, we moved onto what kind of education might be helpful in becoming a Research Engineer. We found that 64.8% of Research Engineers have graduated with a bachelor's degree and 23.0% of people in this position have earned their master's degrees. While most Research Engineers have a college degree, you may find it's also true that generally it's impossible to be successful in this career with only a high school degree. In fact, our research shows that one out of every ten Research Engineers were not college graduates.
Those Research Engineers who do attend college, typically earn either a Mechanical Engineering degree or a Electrical Engineering degree. Less commonly earned degrees for Research Engineers include a Chemical Engineering degree or a Biomedical Engineering degree.
Once you've obtained the level of education you're comfortable with, you might start applying to companies to become a Research Engineer. We've found that most Research Engineer resumes include experience from Meta, Proofpoint, and Apple. Of recent, Meta had 133 positions open for Research Engineers. Meanwhile, there are 76 job openings at Proofpoint and 26 at Apple.
Since salary is important to some Research Engineers, it's good to note that they are figured to earn the highest salaries at Facebook, eBay, and Zoox. If you were to take a closer look at Facebook, you'd find that the average Research Engineer salary is $168,546. Then at eBay, Research Engineers receive an average salary of $148,572, while the salary at Zoox is $146,184.
View more details on Research Engineer salaries across the United States.
We also looked into companies who hire Research Engineers from the top 100 educational institutions in the U.S. The top three companies that hire the most from these institutions include IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Motorola Solutions.
In general, Research Engineers fulfill roles in the Education and Manufacturing industries. While employment numbers are high in those industries, the Research Engineer annual salary is the highest in the Technology industry with $102,860 as the average salary. Meanwhile, the Automotive and Professional industries pay $100,348 and $96,631 respectively. This means that Research Engineers who are employed in the Technology industry make 11.1% more than Research Engineers who work in the Manufacturing Industry.