40 Examples of Engineering Careers

Engineering is the application of science to design and problem solving. This is a broad field that includes the design of tangible things such as infrastructure, machines and computer hardware and intangible things such as software and processes. Engineering requires big picture thinking whereby engineers have the foundational knowledge required to apply first principles to design problems. Likewise, engineers may work with the intricate details of a design such that they require technical knowledge in various domains. The following is a list of engineering careers followed by a brief description of each profession.

Aerospace Engineer	Agricultural Engineer
Architect	Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Automotive Engineer	Biochemical Engineer
Biomedical Engineer	Chemical Engineer
Civil Engineer	Computer Engineer
Controls Engineer	Data Engineer
Electrical Engineer	Energy Engineer
Engineering Management	Environmental Engineer
Geological Engineer	Health & Safety Engineer
Human Factors Engineer	Industrial Engineer
Landscape Architect / Engineer	Machine Learning Engineer
Manufacturing Engineer	Marine Architect / Engineer
Materials Engineer	Mechanical Engineer
Molecular Engineer	Packaging Engineer
Process Engineer	Product Design Engineer
Product Safety Engineer	Reliability Engineer
Research Engineer	Robotics Engineer
Software Architect	Software Developer
Software Engineer	Structural Engineer
Thermal Engineer	Water Engineer

Aerospace Engineer

Engineering things that fly such as aircraft and spacecraft.

Agricultural Engineer

The design of farming machinery and processes.

Architect

The structural design of buildings. This is essentially architectural engineering but also has an artistic and cultural side.

Artificial Intelligence Engineer

The design and implementation of artificial intelligence.

Automotive Engineer

The engineering of cars and other motorized vehicles.

Biochemical Engineer

The intersection of chemical engineering and biological engineering. For example, the design of a process that uses a bacteria to break down a chemical.

Biomedical Engineer

Engineering related to medicine such as healthcare management, treatments, diagnosis, monitoring and therapies. This has a large number of specialties such as bioinformatics, biomechanics and biomaterials.

Chemical Engineer

The development of chemicals and chemical manufacturing processes.

Civil Engineer

Civil engineering is the planning, design and maintenance of infrastructure such as railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, canals, dams and irrigation infrastructure.

Computer Engineer

The intersection of software engineering and electrical engineering whereby an engineer can design both hardware and software.

Controls Engineer

Designing the controls for complex dynamic systems. For example, control of a rocket in flight.

Data Engineer

Engineering of data infrastructure and systems. A type of IT engineering.

Electrical Engineer

The engineering of any machines, infrastructure or equipment that is electrical.

Energy Engineer

The term energy engineer is mostly applied to engineers who specialize in the energy efficiency of things, particularly buildings.

Engineering Management

Managing engineering teams and/or engineering business capabilities. For example, a software engineer who manages a team that is responsible for the reliability of a cloud platform. Engineering management is a broad term that maps to hundreds of job titles.

Environmental Engineer

Applying engineering to solve environmental issues. For example, a materials engineer who develops a biodegradable packaging material based on the principle of waste is food that is designed to reduce plastic waste.

Geological Engineer

Large scale engineering in natural environments. Deals with things like groundwater resources, slope stability, environmental site design and mining exploration and production.

Health & Safety Engineer

The design of processes, systems and equipment for health and safety. This is a diverse multidisciplinary field that deals with things like hazard controls, fire protection, ergonomics, environmental safety, product safety and workplace safety.

Human Factors Engineer

Human factors engineering is the design of things to consider human characteristics and behavior. For example, a chair designed to the edges to be comfortable for most people.

Industrial Engineer

The design, implementation and optimization of industrial processes and systems. For example, the engineering of an order fulfillment process for an ecommerce company.

Landscape Architect

Engineering the structure of land and waterscapes.

Machine Learning Engineer

The development, operation and turning of machine learning environments, also known as artificial intelligence.

Manufacturing Engineer

Designing systems, machines and processes for manufacturing.

Marine Architect / Engineer

The architecture and engineering work that goes into designing, modifying and building ships.

Materials Engineer

The practical science around materials. This can include fabricating new materials, testing and calculations that validate the use of materials for a purpose. For example, modeling the material properties of a composite material used in the wing of an aircraft.

Mechanical Engineer

The engineering design, production and analysis of machines.

Molecular Engineer

Engineering at the molecular level. This usually involves interdisciplinary work with other engineers in areas such as materials engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, medical engineering and mechanical engineering.

Packaging Engineer

The design of packaging this includes elements of marketing, industrial engineering, materials science and logistics.

Process Engineer

Engineering the processes that produce things. For example, the processes used to manufacture chemicals.

Product Design Engineer

The engineering component of product development. This can involve research, development, prototyping, technical testing, market testing, production, quality control, launch and optimization of products.

Product Safety Engineer

Engineering related to the health, safety and compliance of products. For example, engineering a quality control process for steel beams that are rated for use as structural elements of buildings and infrastructure.

Reliability Engineer

The practice of building resilience into systems, processes and platforms. For example, designing a software platform to have 99.999% uptime such that the platform continues to operate under stress or when a large number of components fail.

Research Engineer

A broad term for engineering that seeks foundational knowledge and intellectual property. For example, a materials engineer who designs and tests new composite materials from bamboo fiber without applying this to any specific problem.

Robotics Engineer

Engineering autonomous and semi-autonomous machines.

Software Architect

The structural design of software.

Software Developer / Engineer

The development of software such as platforms, systems and applications.

Structural Engineer

The design, modification and analysis of structures such as buildings and infrastructure. Mainly concerned with the strength, stability and resilience of structures such that they can bear loads and stress without collapsing. Closely related to civil engineering.

Thermal Engineer

Engineering that deals with the heat energy. For example, the design of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.

Water Engineer

Engineering related to water such as distributing clean water, disposal of waste water and flood resilience.