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

What is a traffic engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

As a Traffic Engineer, you will need to know how much traffic can fit on a roadway in a safe manner. You will conduct traffic counts for roadways and intersections to determine the volume of traffic, where the traffic is going to and from, and the types of traffic on the roadway. In addition to knowing traffic flow, construction of highways, and installation of road signs and lights, Traffic Engineers work to improve traffic flow in residential areas.

Traffic Engineers determine how to build roadways that are safe, uncongested, and avoid accidents. A Traffic Engineer can make a median salary of $81,000 per year after obtaining a bachelor's degree in engineering, preferably civil engineering and specializing in road construction and design. A traffic Engineer career is projected to grow at least 2% in the next ten years.

ScoreTraffic EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $87,079

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.6

Growth Rate 7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 14.64%

Black or African American 3.94%

Hispanic or Latino 11.56%

Unknown 4.68%

White 64.87%

Gender

female 18.82%

male 81.18%

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

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.5

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a traffic engineer

Explore traffic engineer education requirements

Most common traffic engineer degrees

Bachelor's

67.2 %

Master's

18.5 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific traffic engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
HCS	8.66%
Traffic Operations	7.12%
Signal Timing	5.87%
Traffic Analysis	5.32%
Project Management	4.58%

Research traffic engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Investigate and troubleshoot all issues in manufacturing.
Integrate the program with packet capturer APIs from PCAP.
Perform the traffic study analysis in SYNCHRO and develop the traffic report.

Prepare your traffic engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your traffic 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 traffic 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 Traffic Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Traffic 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 Traffic Engineer resume.

Apply for traffic engineer jobs

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