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

What is a station engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Harvey Hoffman

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a station engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $47.07 an hour? That's $97,899 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 12,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a station engineer?

Dr. Harvey Hoffman

Associate Dean of Engineering, Fairfield University

Graduates need to be flexible and open to taking on new projects, exploring new industries, perhaps non-traditional areas where they see growth, while building and maintaining their networking relationships. Go where the demand is for the role you seek. I hate to use a cliche, but remember that your engineering career is a journey that may take you in many directions. Be open to change.

A professional in any field must continue to learn. Your engineering degree gave you the necessary tools. You must engage in lifelong learning to increase your knowledge and improve your skills and competencies to set yourself apart.

ScoreStation EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,899

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.1

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.40%

Asian 5.37%

Black or African American 10.48%

Hispanic or Latino 14.96%

Unknown 7.21%

White 61.59%

Gender

female 6.25%

male 93.75%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

4.1

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.8

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.6

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a station engineer

Explore station engineer education requirements

Most common station engineer degrees

Bachelor's

66.7 %

Associate

12.5 %

Master's

7.5 %

Start to develop specific station engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Troubleshoot	26.01%
HVAC	24.94%
Engineering Support	20.06%
FCC	16.00%
RF	7.19%

Complete relevant station engineer training and internships

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

Research station engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage system outages for several Nokia wireless telecommunications switches operation on the Unix platform.
Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Monitor, troubleshoot of Redcom 5EES switches.
Maintain daily FCC logs for station operation.

Apply for station engineer jobs

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

-/5

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Station 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.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020