All careersBusiness & finance

Engineering Manager

$171,270
median / year
$120,810 – $262,760
what most earn per year (10th–90th percentile)

What the job actually is

Lead teams of engineers, plan projects, set technical direction, and keep designs on budget and on schedule.

You may also see this posted as: Engineering Director, Engineering Program Manager, Project Engineering Manager, Project Manager, Civil Engineering Manager, Electrical Engineering Manager.

Where you work

Offices, labs, and manufacturing sites

The hours

Full-time, deadline-driven stretches

The day to day

What you'd actually spend time doing

  • Manage the coordination and overall integration of technical activities in architecture or engineering projects.
  • Direct, review, or approve project design changes.
  • Consult or negotiate with clients to prepare project specifications.
  • Prepare budgets, bids, or contracts.
  • Present and explain proposals, reports, or findings to clients.

Good fit if you like…

Enterprising

leading, persuading, selling, or turning an idea into action

Investigative

solving problems, analyzing evidence, and figuring out how things work

Conventional

organizing information, following systems, and getting details right

O*NET job zone 5 of 5

Extensive preparation—often graduate education and significant experience—is common.

Work styles that matter most

Leadership OrientationDependabilityInnovationAttention to Detail

Software that shows up in the work

Examples employers report—not a checklist you must already know.

Autodesk AutoCADMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Office softwareMicrosoft PowerPointAmazon DynamoDBAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2

By the numbers

May 2025 BLS wage & employment data · 2024–34 BLS employment projections.

Median pay
$171,270
per year
Hourly median
$82.34
per hour
What most earn
$120,810–$262,760
yearly, 10th to 90th percentile
Openings a year
~14,500
projected, 2024–34
Outlook to 2034
+3.8%
About average
Working in the U.S.
220,260
people, nationwide

Openings a year counts new jobs plus the ones that open when people retire or move on — a truer picture of your odds than growth alone.

“Median” means half earn more and half earn less. Your city, employer, and years on the job move it a lot — that is what the 10th-to-90th range shows.

BLS estimates 0.2% of workers in this occupation are self-employed.

What it pays in your state

Statewide medians are a better starting point than the national number. Your city and experience still matter.

BLS state wage tables

How you get in

Typical starting education

Bachelor's degree

Training path: Bachelor's degree, plus experience.

Related work experience: 5 years or more.

On-the-job training: None.

License or certification

No license required to start in most places.

Check the path where you live

Licensing rules and available programs change by state. These federal tools take you to the current official listings.

What it takes

Technical leadershipProject planningBudgetingCommunication

The honest take

A senior destination for engineers who move into leading teams — top pay, reached after years of technical work.

Standard Occupational Classification 11-9041. Pay and employment from the BLS May 2025 OEWS survey; outlook and openings from the 2024–34 employment projections; job context from the Occupational Outlook Handbook; tasks, interests, work styles, software examples, and job zone from O*NET 30.3. See something off? Tell us.