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

What is a contract project engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Experts

Marco Schoen Ph.D.,

Brian Denton Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a contract project engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $37.04 an hour? That's $77,050 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 6,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Contract Project Engineer?

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center (MCERC), Idaho State University

Stay current. Engineering evolves continuously; new tools, new technologies, and new areas where engineers can contribute, learn, and work. When graduating, students have the feeling they are set for their careers. However, this is not true; they might be set to start their careers. To be consistently successful in their pages, they need to stay informed and updated.

ScoreContract Project EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.0

Avg. Salary $77,050

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.4

Growth Rate 2%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 12.27%

Black or African American 3.40%

Hispanic or Latino 9.30%

Unknown 4.60%

White 70.33%

Gender

female 12.16%

male 87.84%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress Level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.6

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.1

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a contract project engineer

Explore contract project engineer education requirements

Most common contract project engineer degrees

Bachelor's

77.0 %

Associate

11.1 %

Master's

6.9 %

Start to develop specific contract project engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Construction Projects	11.91%
Construction Management	8.81%
HVAC	8.40%
Shop Drawings	7.05%
QC	5.93%

Complete relevant contract project engineer training and internships

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

Research contract project engineer duties and responsibilities

Provide mechanical design and sustaining engineering expertise to troubleshoot manufacturing defect trends and achieve a more robust and producible product.
Design and installation of plumbing and fixtures for rest room modifications.
Design and installation of plumbing and sprinkler modifications for manufacturing operations.
Authore and present technical manuals, troubleshoot guides, technical reports and presentations to provide instructional training to technicians and supervisors.

Prepare your contract project engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your contract project 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 contract project engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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