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

What is a wastewater treatment 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 wastewater treatment engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $36.21 an hour? That's $75,324 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 1,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreWastewater Treatment EngineerUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $75,324

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 12.83%

Black or African American 3.48%

Hispanic or Latino 10.15%

Unknown 3.83%

White 69.26%

Gender

female 16.36%

male 83.64%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a wastewater treatment engineer

Explore wastewater treatment engineer education requirements

Most common wastewater treatment engineer degrees

Bachelor's

61.1 %

Associate

13.9 %

Master's

8.3 %

Start to develop specific wastewater treatment engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Process Design	32.94%
Design Drawings	29.17%
Water Treatment Plant	18.13%
Capital Projects	9.74%
Autocad	8.53%

Complete relevant wastewater treatment engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New wastewater treatment 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 wastewater treatment engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real wastewater treatment engineer resumes.

Research wastewater treatment engineer duties and responsibilities

Develop process models for existing and propose wastewater treatment plants using BioWin and GPS-X modeling platforms
Monitor potable pilot plant for chlorination/dechlorination technologies including ozone, UV, chlorine gas/liquid emulsions, and peroxide.
Develop system sequence and interlock definition documentation for support of operating procedures and DCS system development.

Prepare your wastewater treatment engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your wastewater treatment 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 wastewater treatment 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 wastewater treatment engineer resume templates

Build a professional wastewater treatment 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 wastewater treatment engineer resume.