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

What is a drilling engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Andreas Michael Ph.D.

A drilling engineer is responsible for planning and executing operations that drill for gas and oil. They are involved in the entire drilling life cycle, from initial well design to testing to supervising a drilling crew. Drilling engineers often work on teams of geologists, drilling contractors, and other construction managers.

The duties that they perform in this capacity include designing drilling plans, evaluating drilling sites, calculating overhead drilling costs, maintaining stakeholder communication, and monitoring drilling processes. Skills required for the position include data analysis, budgeting, interpersonal, analytical, and leadership. Educational requirements include a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or a similar field. Prior experience may be given preference.

The average hourly salary for the position is $52.56, which amounts to $109,326 annually. The job requires flexibility at times; however, it compensates graciously. The career is expected to see growth in the near future and create new opportunities all across the United States.

What general advice would you give to a Drilling Engineer?

Andreas Michael Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of North Dakota

The same skills that were important and prevalent in the field throughout the past and present. Fundamentals do not change. A state-of-the-art drilling simulator of today, for instance, will not be around in 30 years' time (at least not in its current form), but you can bet that the second law of thermodynamics will be. The emphasis should be on these classic elements.

ScoreDrilling EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $101,225

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.0

Growth Rate 8%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%

Asian 17.23%

Black or African American 4.13%

Hispanic or Latino 10.29%

Unknown 4.69%

White 63.38%

Gender

female 9.83%

male 90.17%

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

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.6

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.8

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Newest jobs for Drilling Engineer in Columbus, OH

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Key steps to become a drilling engineer

Explore drilling engineer education requirements

Most common drilling engineer degrees

Bachelor's

80.3 %

Master's

11.8 %

Associate

3.3 %

Start to develop specific drilling engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Cost Estimates	9.02%
Well Design	7.73%
Data Analysis	7.47%
BHA	7.40%
Technical Support	7.25%

Complete relevant drilling engineer training and internships

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

Research drilling engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage all solids control equipment ie; mud cleaners, centrifuges, and shakers.
Accomplish high level of safety standards and have maintained a accident and incident free career while working for Newpark.
Manage rig move/loss circulation surface personnel logistics for maximum efficiency.
Provide front-end engineering support including selecting and ordering long lead equipment, AFE budgeting/timing and writing detail installation procedures.

Get drilling engineer experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a drilling engineer. The most common roles before becoming a drilling engineer include engineering internship, field engineer team lead and internship.

Prepare your drilling engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your drilling 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 drilling 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 Drilling Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Drilling 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 Drilling Engineer resume.

Apply for drilling engineer jobs

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

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Drilling Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2023

Pros

Work schedule and the job its self

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020