Value engineers create plans for engineering activities devising design criteria and product specifications for components and equipment applied in aircraft. They function as a mediator between engineering and other departments involved in the work.
It will be your job as a value engineer to research product design to make sure proposals match standard design criteria. You will make sure the design costs are reasonable and approve plans or suggest improvements in design proposals based on various factors such as practicality, costs, and component technology.
You will be responsible for coordinating the testing processes of equipment. You will evaluate results and accept or reject utilizing equipment based on the outcome of the tests. Providing technical guidance for research programs aimed at improving production methods will also be your responsibility.
Value Engineer Overview
Working as a Value Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a value engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $39.64 an hour? That's $82,451 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 23,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Value Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many value 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 speaking skills, writing skills and creativity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a value engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.6% of value engineers included project management, while 9.7% of resumes included cad, and 7.3% of resumes included sigma. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the value engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most value engineers actually find jobs in the manufacturing and technology industries.
How To Become a Value Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a value engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 52.0% of value engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 34.3% of value engineers have master's degrees. Even though most value engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a value engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a value engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on value engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a value engineer. In fact, many value engineer jobs require experience in a role such as project engineer. Meanwhile, many value engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as manufacturing engineer or engineer.
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Value Engineer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a value engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project manager, progress to a title such as quality manager and then eventually end up with the title vice president of manufacturing.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Value Engineer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Volvo Group North America LLC Value Chain Engineer Value Chain Engineer | Volvo Group North America LLC Volvo Group North America LLC | 04/03/2019 04/03/2019 | $92,37804/03/2019 $92,378 |
Ceo Development LLC Sustainability and Value Engineer Sustainability and Value Engineer | Ceo Development LLC Ceo Development LLC | 03/20/2019 03/20/2019 | $70,20003/20/2019 $70,200 |
Ceo Development LLC Sustainability and Value Engineer Sustainability and Value Engineer | Ceo Development LLC Ceo Development LLC | 03/20/2019 03/20/2019 | $70,43603/20/2019 $70,436 |
Midwest Cooling Towers, Inc. Mathematical Value Engineer Mathematical Value Engineer | Midwest Cooling Towers, Inc. Midwest Cooling Towers, Inc. | 03/11/2019 03/11/2019 | $59,28003/11/2019 $59,280 |
ASM America Inc. Senior Value Engineer I Senior Value Engineer I | ASM America Inc. ASM America Inc. | 02/04/2019 02/04/2019 | $88,31702/04/2019 $88,317 |
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Top Colleges for Value Engineers
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
3. New York University
New York, NY • Private
4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
6. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
9. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
10. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
Top Skills For a Value 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, 12.6% of value engineers listed project management on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and writing skills are important as well.
- Project Management, 12.6%
- CAD, 9.7%
- Sigma, 7.3%
- Product Design, 6.7%
- Continuous Improvement, 6.0%
- Other Skills, 57.7% See All Value Engineer Skills
Best States For a Value Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a value engineer. The best states for people in this position are Texas, California, Colorado, and Louisiana. Value engineers make the most in Texas with an average salary of $115,757. Whereas in California and Colorado, they would average $103,845 and $103,514, respectively. While value engineers would only make an average of $98,623 in Louisiana, 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. Texas
$115,758
Avg. Salary
2. California
$103,846
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$96,330
Avg. Salary