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

What is a city engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Esber Andiroglu PhD, PE, LEED AP

City engineers are civil engineers that work for the city government to design bridges, roads, and other infrastructure projects. They are also the main overseers of their projects, responsible for ensuring that they stay within budgetary constraints and follow all environmental and safety laws.

Upon closer look, the specific duties of a city engineer also include analyzing data relevant to their project, testing soil and building materials, managing personnel, and presenting project progress to the public. They also frequently survey the project site and conduct assessments to ensure that everything is going according to plan.

Anyone who wants to become a city engineer needs to complete a degree in civil engineering, environmental engineering, or something similar. Since this role is vital in ensuring good use of taxpayer money, city governments also require applicants to have extensive experience in previous civil engineering projects and a proven track record of leadership success. Furthermore, a city engineer must be willing to put in long hours, travel frequently for work, and keep constant communication with everyone involved in the project.

On average, a city engineer earns $68,000 per year. Engineers with higher levels of experience tend to have a higher earning potential and may take home an average of $83,000 annually.

What general advice would you give to a City Engineer?

Esber Andiroglu PhD, PE, LEED AP

Associate Professor of Practice, Dept. of Civil & Architectural Engineering, Director of Construction Management Programs, University of Miami

Interdisciplinary and transformative design and construction approaches; integration of emerging technological innovations into practice; integration of software tools into everyday problem solving; solid knowledge about smart systems and AI applications; good understanding and ability to use data analytics

ScoreCity EngineerUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $74,435

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.3

Growth Rate 7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 11.31%

Black or African American 3.95%

Hispanic or Latino 11.58%

Unknown 4.68%

White 68.16%

Gender

female 10.28%

male 89.72%

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

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.1

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a city engineer

Explore city engineer education requirements

Most common city engineer degrees

Bachelor's

70.1 %

Master's

14.1 %

Associate

10.7 %

Start to develop specific city engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Civil Engineering	14.93%
Project Management	7.71%
Cost Estimates	6.71%
Public Works	5.34%
GIS	4.93%

Complete relevant city engineer training and internships

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

Research city engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Work in a variety of disciplines including structural, architectural, transportation and geotechnical engineering design and mapping and GIS development.
Develop maps and layouts for use by different town departments, update different databases of GIS.
Perform geotechnical instrumentation monitoring and data collection

Prepare your city engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your city 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 city 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 City Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional City 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 City Engineer resume.

Apply for city engineer jobs

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

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City Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2019

Pros

The salary and the benefits that come with a job.