HVAC Engineer
Career Area: Engineering
Occupation Group: Mechanical and Related Engineers
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 HVAC Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $80,364
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $81,116
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Designs, installs, maintains, and repairs heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
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:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 190 | +8.5% |
| Nationwide | 6915 | +4.1% |
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 HVAC 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.
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is an office suite of applications, servers, and services developed by Microsoft.
- Writing: Experience expressing business messages effectively in written form. This may include planning drafting and revising as necessary.
- 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.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort.
- Mechanical Engineering: Mechanical Engineering, is the discipline that applies engineering, physics, and materials science principles to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems.
- Plumbing: Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications.
- Revit: Working experience of Revit. Autodesk Revit is building information modeling software for architects, landscape architects, structural engineers, MEP engineers, designers and contractors developed by Autodesk. It allows users to design a building and structure and its components in 3D, annotate the model with 2D drafting elements, and access building information from the building model's database. Revit is 4D BIM capable with tools to plan and track various stages in the building's lifecycle, from concept to construction and later maintenance and/or demolition.
- AutoCAD: AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application.
Distinguishing Skills
Any HVAC Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Duct Work: Working experience of Duct Work, which is a system of metal or fiberglass tubes that run through a home or building and that are part of the heating and air conditioning system
- Plumbing Design: Working experience of Plumbing Design. Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications.Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids
- Pipe Systems: Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquidsand gases) from one location to another.
- Design and Construction: Experience working in teams or organizations that deliver projects in which the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity.
- Computer Aided Drafting/Design (CAD): Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer systems (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design.
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 years | 15% |
| 3 to 5 years | 47% |
| 6 to 8 years | 19% |
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:
- Mechanical Engineer
- Senior Mechanical Engineer
- Hvac Engineer
- Mechanical Estimator
- Refrigeration Engineer
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