Chemical Engineer (General)
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Chemical Engineer researches, develops and implements processes used in chemical manufacturing. May develop chemical processes used to create products or develop processes used to manufacture chemicals. Designs and tests production processes and techniques.
Job Outlook
There were 85 Chemical Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 2299 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Chemical / Process Engineer industry, which includes the Chemical Engineer (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Chemical Engineer (General) jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $111,436.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $107,262.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Chemical Engineer (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $93,428.
Education and Experience
Posted Chemical Engineer (General) jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 68.94% |
| Master's Degree | 30.93% |
| Doctoral Degree | 17.27% |
| Other | 1.39% |
Posted Chemical Engineer (General) jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 34.39% |
| 3 to 5 years | 35.84% |
| 6 to 8 years | 9.26% |
| 9+ years | 20.51% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Chemical Engineer (General) positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (39.89%)
- Operations (33.49%)
- Research (31.88%)
- Problem Solving (21.79%)
- Management (21.57%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (20.7%)
- Leadership (17.49%)
- Writing (14.79%)
- Presentations (14.4%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (13.53%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Chemical Process (21.83%)
- Chemical Engineering (73.09%)
- Process Engineering (21.3%)
- Chemistry (30.15%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Materials Science (10.99%)
- Project Engineering (4.7%)
- Data Analysis (12.54%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (8.57%)
- Environmental Engineering (9.54%)
- Refinery Experience (7.5%)
- Oil and Gas (6.97%)
- Manufacturing Processes (10.36%)
- Systems Engineering (4.55%)
- AutoCAD (3.63%)
- Process Design (7.41%)
- Biochemistry (4.74%)
- Auditing (7.65%)
- Risk Analysis (2.27%)
- Thermodynamics (4.31%)
- Process Control (5.81%)
- Process Flow Diagrams (8.95%)
- Engineering Design Process (4.11%)
- Technical Writing (4.02%)
- Process Development (8.86%)
- Equipment Design (3.39%)
- Project Management (18.64%)
- Mechanical Engineering (12.44%)
- Process Modeling (9.24%)
- New Product Development (10.07%)
- Process Safety (4.65%)
- Technical Documentation (1.31%)
- Process Improvement (12.88%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Chemical Reactors (1.11%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Chemical Engineer (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Chemical Engineer
- Chemical Process Engineer
- Chemical Engineering Intern
- Principal Engineer
- Chemical Engineering Manager
- Operations Intern
- Pilot Plant Engineer
- Summer Intern
- Human Resources Co-Op/Intern
- Biochemical Engineer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Process Engineer (General)
- Process Development Engineer
- Research and Development Chemist
- Process Industrial Engineer
- Polymer Chemist
- Materials Research Engineer
- Chemist (General)
- Manufacturing Chemist
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Chemical Engineer (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- CDM Smith (82)
- Marathon Petroleum (69)
- Black & Veatch (67)
- Chemours (62)
- Honeywell International (53)
- Hensel Phelps (48)
- Argonne National Laboratory (43)
- Actalent (30)
- Jacobs Solutions (28)
- Southwest Research Institute (24)
North Carolina
- Chemours (13)
- Black & Veatch (7)
- CDM Smith (4)
- Research Triangle Institute (3)
- Eastman Chemical (3)
- Orise (3)
- Rbw Consulting (2)
- The Recruiting Group (2)
- Yamaha Corporation of America (2)
- Nutrien (2)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.