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

What is a fuels engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a fuels engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $45.43 an hour? That's $94,499 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFuels EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.4

Avg. Salary $94,499

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.8

Growth Rate 14%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.38%

Asian 14.52%

Black or African American 4.22%

Hispanic or Latino 10.78%

Unknown 5.65%

White 64.45%

Gender

female 2.30%

male 97.70%

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

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.3

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fuels engineer

Explore fuels engineer education requirements

Most common fuels engineer degrees

Bachelor's

64.9 %

Associate

12.2 %

Master's

8.1 %

Start to develop specific fuels engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
EPA	20.18%
NRC	17.82%
MATLAB	13.46%
Nuclear Safety	13.32%
On-Site Support	8.59%

Complete relevant fuels engineer training and internships

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

Research fuels engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage the implementation of technology for better communicating and displaying radiological data used during emergency response.
Inspect and troubleshoot heavy, and combination equipment.
Perform long term PWR nuclear core design and fuel management.
Analyze BWR cores from fuel cross section development through core model optimization.

Prepare your fuels engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your fuels 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 fuels 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 Fuels Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Fuels 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 Fuels Engineer resume.

Apply for fuels engineer jobs

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