What is a contracting engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
Quoted Experts
Andrea Welker Ph.D.,
Brian Denton Ph.D.
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A contracting engineer is an individual and specialist that specializes in supervising engineering projects, focusing on the legalities of the contract to make sure there is fairness between clients and engineers. As a contracting engineer, your duties are mostly administration, like setting budgets, guidelines, maintaining records, gathering and analyzing data, conducting research, and drafting commercial tenders. Furthermore, you are to maintain an unrestricted communication line with every party to make sure there's a smooth workflow.

As a contracting engineer, you should earn an average amount of $115,697. Educationally, you must have a bachelor's degree. However, you could be at an advantage if you hold a higher degree.

What general advice would you give to a Contracting Engineer?

Andrea Welker Ph.D.Andrea Welker Ph.D. LinkedIn Profile

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villanova University

Be open to new experiences. Find a good mentor. Become a valued employee. Always remember that you are designing something for someone.
ScoreContracting EngineerUS Average
Salary
8.2

Avg. Salary $122,620

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 11.83%

Black or African American 3.45%

Hispanic or Latino 9.55%

Unknown 4.61%

White 70.45%

Gender

female 11.83%

male 88.17%

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

Contracting Engineer career paths

Key steps to become a contracting engineer

  1. Explore contracting engineer education requirements

    Most common contracting engineer degrees

    Bachelor's

    70.8 %

    Associate

    12.3 %

    Master's

    11.5 %
  2. Start to develop specific contracting engineer skills

    Skills
    ascdesc
    Percentages
    ascdesc
    C++8.60%
    C #8.60%
    R6.31%
    Python5.27%
    Windows4.34%
  3. Complete relevant contracting engineer training and internships

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

    • Design engineering work are accomplished with Pro/E WF5.0 and Windchill PDMLink.
    • Develop graphical user interfaces to automate design library release process using Perl and Perl/Tk.
    • Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
    • Create larger Creo FEA model of wider frame which notably sped up the design cycle.
  5. Get contracting engineer experience

    Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a contracting engineer. The most common roles before becoming a contracting engineer include project engineer, engineer team lead and design engineer.
  6. Prepare your contracting engineer resume

    When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your contracting 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 contracting 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 Contracting Engineer Resume templates

    Build a professional Contracting 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 Contracting Engineer resume.
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    Contracting Engineer Resume
  7. Apply for contracting engineer jobs

    Now it's time to start searching for a contracting engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

    1. Browse job boards for relevant postings
    2. Consult your professional network
    3. Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
    4. Watch out for job scams

How Did You Land Your First Contracting Engineer Job

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Average contracting engineer salary

The average Contracting Engineer salary in the United States is $122,620 per year or $59 per hour. Contracting engineer salaries range between $86,000 and $173,000 per year.

Average Contracting Engineer Salary
$122,620 Yearly
$58.95 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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How do contracting engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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Contracting Engineer reviews

profile
A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2023
Pros

It can gurantee you a good salary and if you are creative you can do many things.

Cons

you have to be creative.


profile
A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020
Pros

The Different employees i work with and what all i learn from them

Cons

very little


profile
A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019
Pros

Troubleshooting and commissioning

Cons

Undone job, when we're unable to discover certain fault on time.


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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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