How To Become A Senior Lead Project Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior lead project engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Experts

Marco Schoen Ph.D.,

Brian Denton Ph.D.

The average senior lead project engineer salary is $102,402. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an mechanical engineering major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a senior lead project engineer. Senior lead project engineers with a Master Project Manager (MPM) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 30,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Senior Lead Project Engineer?

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center (MCERC), Idaho State University

Stay current. Engineering evolves continuously; new tools, new technologies, and new areas where engineers can contribute, learn, and work. When graduating, students have the feeling they are set for their careers. However, this is not true; they might be set to start their careers. To be consistently successful in their pages, they need to stay informed and updated.

ScoreSenior Lead Project EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $102,402

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.5

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 15.35%

Black or African American 4.27%

Hispanic or Latino 10.48%

Unknown 3.88%

White 65.85%

Gender

female 13.74%

male 86.26%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress Level

7.5

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

Key steps to become a senior lead project engineer

Explore senior lead project engineer education requirements

Most common senior lead project engineer degrees

Bachelor's

72.2 %

Master's

16.7 %

Associate

5.7 %

Start to develop specific senior lead project engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Risk Management	16.81%
R	12.88%
Product Development	10.61%
Technical Issues	8.87%
QA	4.55%

Complete relevant senior lead project engineer training and internships

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

Research senior lead project engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage BOM to support staff and AS400 applications.
Manage the manufacturing of defense and aerospace electro-mechanical print circuit boards from prototype to production level.
Work with the enterprise architecture team to assess and resolve issues relating to enterprise wide deployment and QA involvement.
Design and develop prototype and production line tooling using Solidworks and AutoCad.

Get senior lead project engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior lead project engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior lead project engineer include project engineer, senior project engineer team lead and engineer.

Prepare your senior lead project engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior lead 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 a senior lead 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 Senior Lead Project Engineer Resume templates

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Apply for senior lead project engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior lead 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 senior lead project engineer salary

The average Senior Lead Project Engineer salary in the United States is $102,402 per year or $49 per hour. Senior lead project engineer salaries range between $78,000 and $133,000 per year.

Average Senior Lead Project Engineer Salary

$102,402 Yearly

$49.23 hourly

How do senior lead project engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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Senior Lead Project Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

I enjoy problem-solving and identifying a path to completing a complex project. I like to ensure that moving parts come together smoothly and communicating successes and celebrating with the team.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020