Energy Engineer (General)

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

An Energy Engineer designs and develops technologies that produce and store energy, particularly energy from sustainable sources such as wind and solar power. Develops ways for existing buildings and systems to become more energy efficient. May specialize in one type or field of energy production.

Job Outlook

There were 76 Energy Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 2066 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Energy Engineer industry, which includes the Energy Engineer (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Energy 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 $115,560.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,150.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Energy Engineer (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $100,912.

Education and Experience

Posted Energy 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	60.6%
Master's Degree	26.19%
Doctoral Degree	10.94%
Other	8.86%

Posted Energy 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	17.89%
3 to 5 years	55.43%
6 to 8 years	16.13%
9+ years	10.55%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Energy 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 (45.45%)
Operations (40.42%)
Planning (36.69%)
Management (27.15%)
Research (27.01%)
Mathematics (20.86%)
Leadership (20.62%)
Problem Solving (19.85%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (17.67%)
Resilience (14.13%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Energy Management (20.24%)
Control Systems (18.06%)
Electrical Engineering (39.85%)
Mechanical Engineering (33.11%)
Project Management (27.56%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Energy Consumption (8.61%)
Project Engineering (3.27%)
Technical Support (5.45%)
Systems Engineering (23.35%)
Data Analysis (21.43%)
Energy Management Systems (8.51%)
Building Management System (16.71%)
Automation (7.84%)
HVAC (18.47%)
Construction (9.34%)
Computer Science (25.9%)
Procurement (6.07%)
Performance Management (2.85%)
Feasibility Studies (2.96%)
Energy Conservation (8.51%)
Renewable Energy (7.37%)
Modbus (6.69%)
Distributed Generation (7.11%)
Oil and Gas (3.17%)
Python (Programming Language) (9.29%)
Electric Power Systems (28.13%)
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) (9.19%)
Solution Architecture (2.85%)
SQL (Programming Language) (6.43%)
Simulations (15.26%)
Software Engineering (20.39%)
Systems Integration (6.38%)
Commissioning (8.3%)
Industry Standards (7.06%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Smart Grid (3.53%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Project Management (88.8%)
Smart Grid (11.37%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Energy Engineer (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Infrastructure Intern
Energy Engineer
Technical Infrastructure Manager
Utility Systems Operator
Industrial Engineer
Electrical Distribution Engineer
Sustainability Engineer
Building Engineer
Meter Engineer
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.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Energy Engineer (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (333)
Jacobs Solutions (95)
Deloitte (67)
McKinstry (58)
Sargent & Lundy (43)
Eversource Energy (40)
Honeywell International (25)
Tetra Tech (25)
Ernst & Young (24)
Transdev (22)

North Carolina

Jacobs Solutions (14)
Duke Energy (7)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (6)
University of North Carolina (5)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (4)
Hitachi (3)
Sargent & Lundy (3)
Eaton Corporation (2)
JLL (2)
Deloitte (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.

Engineering