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

What is a road 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 road engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $39.05 an hour? That's $81,224 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 22,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRoad EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.3

Avg. Salary $81,224

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 13.13%

Black or African American 3.98%

Hispanic or Latino 11.67%

Unknown 4.69%

White 66.22%

Gender

female 6.06%

male 93.94%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a road engineer

Explore road engineer education requirements

Most common road engineer degrees

Bachelor's

52.4 %

High School Diploma

23.8 %

Associate

14.3 %

Start to develop specific road engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Engineering Design	85.92%
Asphalt	10.05%
Mix Designs	4.03%

Complete relevant road engineer training and internships

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

Research road engineer duties and responsibilities

Calculate sub-contractors weekly accomplish work for payroll.
Work on the Illiniois side of the bridge using an excavator with jack hammerattachment.
Answer RFI's relate to structural drawings, materials, and questions relate to the specifications.
Develop and support local OSHA and other safety initiatives.

Prepare your road engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your road 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 road 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 road engineer resume templates

Build a professional road engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your road engineer resume.