How To Become An Electrical Project Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is an electrical project engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Experts

Dr. Angela Rasmussen,

Brian Denton Ph.D.

An electrical project engineer supervises the development and installation of the electrical engineering systems for a particular project. Your responsibilities include developing a design plan, reviewing the design plans, assigning tasks to other workers, and adhering to all technical and safety requirements. Plus, you are also in charge of designing and constructing electrical systems and their components, performing complex calculations, liaising with other engineers, staying within budget, and maintaining relationships with clients, vendors, and other stakeholders. You are also to complete quality assurance on all electrical components and projects and write reports to diagnose problems and troubleshoot equipment.

To become an electrical project engineer, you need a minimum of a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and previous job experience in project management. You should also have excellent time management and diagnostic skills, verbal and written communication skills. As an electrical project engineer, you will earn an average annual salary of $88,994.

What general advice would you give to an Electrical Project Engineer?

Dr. Angela Rasmussen

Professor (Lecturer) Director of Mentoring and Advising Director of Electrical Engineering Senior Projects, University of Utah

Take heart that while Electrical Engineering jobs have been impacted by COVID19, it's impact is minimal in comparison to most other areas. While many areas have been hit hard by layoffs, Electrical Engineering has only slightly been affected in comparison. Many companies have declared hiring freezes and many others are still hiring. Therefore, don't get discouraged. There are Electrical Engineerings jobs needing to be filled! Make sure to be professional in all your interactions and work on improving your online presence.

ScoreElectrical Project EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.6

Avg. Salary $84,342

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

5.7

Growth Rate 3%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 14.42%

Black or African American 4.83%

Hispanic or Latino 11.21%

Unknown 4.71%

White 64.65%

Gender

female 7.10%

male 92.90%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Stress Level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an electrical project engineer

Explore electrical project engineer education requirements

Most common electrical project engineer degrees

Bachelor's

77.6 %

Master's

10.8 %

Associate

9.2 %

Start to develop specific electrical project engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	8.88%
Autocad	8.38%
PLC	6.40%
CAD	4.22%
Engineering Design	3.94%

Complete relevant electrical project engineer training and internships

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

Research electrical project engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead and contribute to the creation of documentation to satisfy FDA and ISO requirements.
Manage load/unload operations for rail base raw material (HDPE and PPE feedstock) delivery.
Develop LabVIEW code to automate test procedures and to communicate with units for verification of functionality and accuracy.
Complete accurate and thorough documentation of qualification testing, field testing, technical specifications and NEC and IEEE standards compliance.

Prepare your electrical project engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your electrical 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 an electrical project 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 Electrical Project Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Electrical Project 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 Electrical Project Engineer resume.

Apply for electrical project engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an electrical project 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

Average electrical project engineer salary

The average Electrical Project Engineer salary in the United States is $84,342 per year or $41 per hour. Electrical project engineer salaries range between $64,000 and $109,000 per year.

Average Electrical Project Engineer Salary

$84,342 Yearly

$40.55 hourly

How do electrical project engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Electrical Project Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2020

Cons

I like everything about it.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Pros

To Install And Maintain Mostly In Building And Industrial Installation.