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

What is a space engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Ms. Tracee Friess A.V.P.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a space engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $46.79 an hour? That's $97,322 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a space engineer?

Ms. Tracee Friess A.V.P.

A.V.P., Strategic Communication & Marketing

You can get on a flight with a bunch of other people and with a high degree of confidence tell yourself it is not just magic pixie dust that makes the plane fly.

ScoreSpace EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,322

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.30%

Asian 10.98%

Black or African American 4.17%

Hispanic or Latino 11.01%

Unknown 4.44%

White 69.10%

Gender

female 26.00%

male 74.00%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a space engineer

Explore space engineer education requirements

Most common space engineer degrees

Bachelor's

83.8 %

Associate

5.4 %

Diploma

5.4 %

Start to develop specific space engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
MATLAB	45.04%
Data Analysis	28.75%
Payload	12.50%
NASA	9.97%
Engineering Support	2.29%

Complete relevant space engineer training and internships

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

Research space engineer duties and responsibilities

Involve working directly with engineering and other organizations and NASA personnel to accomplish these tasks.
Provide consultation to the ISO team in achieving certification, and enable company to win many more deals as a result.
Experience at maximum likelihood base approach to compute RF array direction finding performance.
Develop synthesize-able decimation filter architecture.

Apply for space engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a space 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