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Most senior project engineers find jobs in the manufacturing and technology industries. They manage deliveries in and out of project sites, lead operations, and support HVAC systems and fire protection programs' design and management. Their other day-to-day duties include designing software, managing the project process floor, integrating software and hardware, and determining measurement techniques to utilize.


Senior project engineers also find themselves working alongside the architecture team and assessing quality analysts' involvement. Some hard skills essential in this career are project management, construction management, product development, technical support, and facilities management. A senior project engineer must show that they have done project development successfully previously. They should have experience with multiple product development projects from conception and design to production.


Most employers will expect you to earn either a bachelor's or master's degree to consider you as a candidate for the position. It is almost impossible to become one with only a high school diploma or GED. They earn well at an average of $97,406 per year, that's $46.85 per hour. Additionally, the career is expected to grow by 4% between 2018 and 2028, creating 12,800 new jobs. So you have plenty of opportunities to grow your career.

What Does a Senior Project Engineer Do

There are certain skills that many senior project 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 mechanical skills, creativity and listening skills.

Learn more about what a Senior Project Engineer does

How To Become a Senior Project Engineer

If you're interested in becoming a senior project engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.0% of senior project engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.0% of senior project engineers have master's degrees. Even though most senior project engineers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Senior Project Engineer

Career Path For a Senior Project Engineer

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 mechanical engineer you might progress to a role such as mechanical engineering manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title mechanical engineering manager.

Senior Project Engineer

Average Salary for a Senior Project Engineer

Senior Project Engineers in America make an average salary of $97,803 per year or $47 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $124,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $77,000 per year.
Average Senior Project Engineer Salary
$97,803 Yearly
$47.02 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Senior Project Engineer

The role of a senior project engineer includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general senior project engineer responsibilities:

  • Responsible for the design of new advanced gasoline engines
  • Responsibilities and essential job functionsincludebut are not limited to thefollowing: projectengineering work with project manager to manage life cycle" development process for products maintain product development/evaluationschedule work with all product development members, development partners
  • Oversee all engineering activities and project deliverables. Have clear understanding of the contract

There are several types of senior project engineer, including:

Project Engineer

Role:

A project engineer is responsible for the planning and implementation of a project. In collaboration with the management of the enterprise, they review proposals and come up with project goals. They break down the process and create a viable schedule, and then coordinate and monitor the work.


The project, as such, sounds vague because it depends on the industry they work for. In any case, they go on regular meetings with clients to make sure the the evolution of the work matches their vision. It is their responsibility to carry out the work within the budget or to propose adjustments to it if they see fit.


The project engineer will analyze the performance of their team and present progress reports to stakeholders to make sure everyone is at the top of their game.

  • Average Salary: $75,050
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Design Engineer

Role:

Do you love technical work and want to pursue your creative side at the same time? Maybe now's the time to take your sketch pads out of your shoebox and see those designs come to life. If you feel excited, guess you're on track to being a design engineer in the future.


A design engineer sounds fun, if you love research and innovation. I mean, who wouldn't want to see their discoveries and projects come alive, right? Recognition is another thing, but self-accomplishment matters the most. Apart from that, design engineers build their careers around traveling (no, not a vacation, though), interacting with people, and more... more technical duties. They are computer-savvy humans who would throw a fit over a system crash and computer virus (Like, who doesn't?). Their schedules are, well, usually messed-up. They work like regular employees during weekdays but could go over weekends and holidays as their job requires. So if you're planning to have a coffee date with a design engineer, just don't expect too much as they may meet a client in that coffee shop, too.


Generally, this job sounds fun, regardless of the pile of work and deadlines that have to be done. If you're someone who's always up for new things and discoveries, this might be the sign you're waiting for.

  • Average Salary: $77,134
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Mechanical Engineer

Role:

Mechanical engineers are those who can work on designing and planning engines and other equipment for the company. You will be in charge of maintenance, installation, operation, and repair of equipment. You will get the customer design proposals and will investigate failures and diagnose faulty equipment and report to the maintenance team. You will also handle discussions and solve problems together with manufacturing departments, suppliers, and customers. This means you will work with personnel within and outside the engineering team. Similarly, you will make sure the products are more reliable and perform well in the specific operating environments.


There is a list of accredited engineering courses you must have taken for you to be eligible for the post. A Master's or doctorate degree will be a plus. You must be creative, have a great team spirit and be able to work under pressure. In addition, you need to have good interpersonal skills and verbal and written communication skills. You will earn an average of $72,056 a year.

  • Average Salary: $75,352
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Senior Project Engineer Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active senior project engineer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where senior project engineers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Senior Project Engineer Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California9,236$108,976
2Texas3,559$103,940
3Georgia2,568$95,551
4Ohio2,532$87,167
5New York2,299$99,763
6Virginia2,226$102,552
7Massachusetts2,168$106,077
8Florida2,074$93,055
9Michigan2,067$93,698
10Minnesota1,984$88,934
11Washington1,907$104,253
12Illinois1,790$96,607
13Pennsylvania1,677$88,930
14North Carolina1,619$91,631
15Indiana1,447$89,874
16Colorado1,397$98,943
17Wisconsin1,392$81,138
18Maryland1,385$111,201
19Missouri1,316$92,263
20Arizona1,311$103,806
21Tennessee1,226$96,418
22Oregon1,127$110,005
23New Jersey1,077$100,692
24Alabama903$92,893
25South Carolina897$92,616
26Iowa739$90,735
27Utah725$96,723
28Kansas665$89,429
29Kentucky652$84,925
30Connecticut557$105,250
31Nevada538$99,185
32New Mexico525$101,171
33Nebraska510$88,479
34Oklahoma500$89,989
35New Hampshire500$84,933
36Louisiana498$105,090
37Arkansas493$72,168
38Idaho418$81,880
39Mississippi270$86,551
40Maine269$93,803
41Delaware249$95,996
42West Virginia246$95,160
43North Dakota225$86,225
44Rhode Island196$97,636
45South Dakota172$73,042
46Montana155$87,606
47Vermont140$86,788
48Hawaii135$99,030
49Alaska103$99,160
50Wyoming87$84,735

Senior Project Engineer Education

Senior Project Engineer Majors

Senior Project Engineer Degrees

Bachelors

76.0 %

Masters

13.0 %

Associate

7.3 %

Top Colleges for Senior Project Engineers

1. Michigan Technological University

Houghton, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,646

Enrollment

5,736

2. Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA • Private

In-State Tuition

$12,424

Enrollment

15,201

3. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,832

Enrollment

4,550

5. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

6. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

7. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

8. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,740

Enrollment

5,567

9. Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,465

Enrollment

6,483

10. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

Top Skills For a Senior Project Engineer

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, 16.3% of senior project engineers listed project management on their resume, but soft skills such as mechanical skills and creativity are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Project Engineer Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Senior Project Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Senior Project Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Senior Project Engineer diversity

Senior Project Engineer Gender Distribution

Male
Male
84%
Female
Female
16%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among senior project engineers, 15.6% of them are women, while 84.4% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among senior project engineers is White, which makes up 69.0% of all senior project engineers.

  • The most common foreign language among senior project engineers is Spanish at 37.5%.

Online Courses For Senior Project Engineer That You May Like

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1. Software Engineering: Software Design and Project Management

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Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the process of developing software through planning, requirement analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. This course focuses on the project planning and analysis/design phases of SDLC, and you will learn about different architectural patterns and design patterns to solve common problems in software design. It covers project planning, scheduling, and cost estimating, which are the principal tasks of software project managers. Basic...

2. Engineering Project Management: Scope, Time and Cost Management

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Scope, time, and cost management are at the heart of successful project management. This course will give you the tools to develop a project scope, schedule and budget and then status them to predict project performance. Throughout the course, you will learn about change management and techniques to implement it. By the end of this course you will be able to: • Create a requirements document • Create a Project Scope Statement • Identify ways to control the scope of the project • Decompose the...

3. Product Development & Systems Engineering

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The complete Product Development & Systems Engineering course! Earn 25 contact hours AND prepare to take the INCOSE Exam...

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Best States For a Senior Project Engineer

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior project engineer. The best states for people in this position are Maryland, Oregon, California, and Massachusetts. Senior project engineers make the most in Maryland with an average salary of $111,201. Whereas in Oregon and California, they would average $110,005 and $108,976, respectively. While senior project engineers would only make an average of $106,077 in Massachusetts, 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. Oregon

Total Senior Project Engineer Jobs: 1,127
Highest 10% Earn:
$142,000
Location Quotient:
1.27

2. New Mexico

Total Senior Project Engineer Jobs: 525
Highest 10% Earn:
$130,000
Location Quotient:
1.25

3. Massachusetts

Total Senior Project Engineer Jobs: 2,168
Highest 10% Earn:
$133,000
Location Quotient:
1.1
Full List Of Best States For Senior Project Engineers

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Top Senior Project Engineer Employers

Most Common Employers For Senior Project Engineer

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Exxon Mobil$115,646$55.6043
2Navistar$112,825$54.2460
3General Motors$111,244$53.48225
4Caterpillar$104,410$50.2034
5Rockwell Automation$102,513$49.2933
6Nexant$98,953$47.5740
7UL$98,373$47.2980
8The Aerospace Corporation$97,503$46.8850
9Honeywell$96,436$46.36117
10Westinghouse Appliances Australia$96,273$46.2936

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