Research, Compliance and Ethics Careers | Operations Engineering Manager

Operations Engineering Manager

Career Area: Engineering

Occupation Group: Engineering Managers

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 Operations Engineering Manager earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $95,743

*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.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $101,764

*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?

Manages engineering staff and oversight of work, budgets, project management plans and workload forecasting. Assists with the Development, implementation, and oversight of the strategic and annual business plan development.

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 Carolina30+5.1%
Nationwide902+2.8%

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 Operations Engineering Manager is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
  • 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.
  • Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
  • Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is an office suite of applications, servers, and services developed by Microsoft.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • Operations Management: Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services.
  • Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
  • Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
  • Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
  • Engineering Management: Experience organizing, administering, and planning the operational performance of complex engineering driven enterprises.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Operations Engineering Manager that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Strategic Planning: Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.
  • Engineering Activities: Working experience of Engineering Activities, which includes all activities or functions of an engineer, invloving the application of science and mathematics to the design, manufacture or maintenance of complex products.
  • Engineering Design and Installation: Working experience of Engineering Design and Installation. The engineering design process is a methodical series of steps that engineers use in creating functional products and processes. The process is highly iterative - parts of the process often need to be repeated many times before another can be entered - though the part(s) that get iterated and the number of such cycles in any given project may vary.
  • Engineering Projects: Project Engineering bridges the boundaries between engineering and project management, leading the technical workers who contribute to the building of structures or products.
  • Cost Estimation: A cost estimate is the approximation of the cost of a program, project, or operation.

Salary Boosting Skills

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

  • Engineering Leadership: Experience providing the technical leadership of change.
  • Process Safety: Working experience of Process Safety, which is a blend of engineering and management skills focused on preventing catastrophic accidents and near misses, particularly structural collapse, explosions, fires and toxic releases associated with loss of containment of energy or dangerous substances such as chemicals and petroleum products.

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 years8%
3 to 5 years39%
6 to 8 years25%

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:

  • Engineering Operations Manager
  • Engineering Manager
  • Chief Engineer
  • Project Engineer
  • Lead Cybersecurity Azure/O365 Cloud Engineering Manager

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