Construction Materials Engineer

Career Area: Engineering

Occupation Group: Chemical, Biomedical, and Related Engineering

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Construction Materials Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):

State

We do not have this data at this time.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $79,381

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Researches and develops materials used in civil engineering and construction projects. Studies the composition, properties and performance of materials used to build roads, bridges and other big construction projects. Engineers and tests construction materials.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

LocationGrowth
North Carolina0+4.3%
Nationwide31+0.2%

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Construction Materials Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
  • Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
  • Research: Experience performing creative and systematic work to understand a product, market, or customer, either before building a new solution, or to troubleshoot an existing issue
  • Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • Materials Engineering: Working experience of Materials Engineering. The interdisciplinary field of materials science, also commonly termed materials science and engineering is the design and discovery of new materials, particularly solids.
  • Materials Science: The interdisciplinary field of materials science, also commonly termed materials science and engineering, involves the discovery and design of new materials, with an emphasis on solids.
  • Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
  • Chemistry: Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter.
  • Materials Testing: Materials testing is themeasurement of the characteristics and behaviour of such substances as metals,ceramics, or plastics under various conditions.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Construction Materials Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Materials Selection: Material selection is a step in the process of designing any physical object.
  • Fuel Cell: A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen-containing fuel with oxygen or another oxidizing agent.
  • Failure Analysis: Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability.
  • Nondestructive Testing (NDT): Nondestructive testing or non-destructive testing (NDT) is a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage.
  • Advanced Technologies: Working experience of Advanced Technologies, which is an aerospace engineering company that designs and develops rotor assemblies, composite rotor blades, wind tunnels, and full scale mockups.

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:

  • Advanced Technologies: Working experience of Advanced Technologies, which is an aerospace engineering company that designs and develops rotor assemblies, composite rotor blades, wind tunnels, and full scale mockups.
  • Microbiologic Testing: Working experience of Microbiologic Testing. Microbiology means the study of microbes or microorganisms, which are defined by Wikipedia as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell (unicellular), cell clusters or no cell at all (acellular) . Microbiology testing covers a wide range of studied subjects including but not limited to bacteria, fungi, parasites, algae, enzymes and viruses.
  • Materials Selection: Material selection is a step in the process of designing any physical object.
  • Materials Processing: Materials processing is defined as the series of steps or unit operations used in the manufacture of raw-materials into finished goods. The operations involve a succession of industrial processes with various mechanical or chemical procedures, usually produced in large quantities or batches.
  • Metallurgy: Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Experience Required%
0 to 2 years41%
3 to 5 years18%
6 to 8 years9%

Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.

Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

  • Materials Engineer
  • Senior Materials Engineer
  • Computational Materials Scientist
  • Material Science Engineer
  • Materials Plan/Buy Coord