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

What is a structural test engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a structural test engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $41.71 an hour? That's $86,757 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreStructural Test EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $86,757

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 10.91%

Black or African American 4.21%

Hispanic or Latino 11.24%

Unknown 4.46%

White 68.88%

Gender

female 8.45%

male 91.55%

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 structural test engineer

Explore structural test engineer education requirements

Most common structural test engineer degrees

Bachelor's

83.1 %

Master's

9.2 %

Associate

6.2 %

Start to develop specific structural test engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
CAD	13.95%
Aerospace	13.25%
Test Data	8.76%
CATIA	8.20%
Data Acquisition Systems	6.56%

Complete relevant structural test engineer training and internships

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

Research structural test engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Collaborate with frequency managers, FCC, FAA, and local spectrum authorities to plan frequency assignments.
Import the model to perform simulation in ANSYS to procure the optimum design of a typical high mach air-frame structure.
Formulate conceptual design of aeronautical, aerospace products or systems to meet customer requirements and communicate feed back to design engineers.

Prepare your structural test engineer resume

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

Build a professional structural test 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 structural test engineer resume.