Nuclear Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Nuclear Engineer researches and develops technology and systems that use nuclear energy and radiation. Maintains the safety of existing nuclear power systems, or develops nuclear power sources, or develops industrial and medical uses for radioactive material.

Job Outlook

There were 153 Nuclear Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 3197 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Nuclear Engineer industry, which includes the Nuclear Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Nuclear Engineer 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 $101,540.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $103,897.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Nuclear Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $88,606.

Education and Experience

Posted Nuclear Engineer 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	5.82%
Bachelor's Degree	76.1%
Master's Degree	36.38%
Doctoral Degree	16.89%
Other	7.01%

Posted Nuclear Engineer 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	23.08%
3 to 5 years	36.27%
6 to 8 years	16.42%
9+ years	24.23%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Nuclear Engineer 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 (29.72%)
Operations (29.47%)
Management (25.37%)
Research (19.86%)
Planning (19.55%)
Verbal Communication Skills (18.39%)
Leadership (16.48%)
Writing (14.8%)
Coordinating (14.01%)
Problem Solving (12.73%)

Defining Skills

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

Nuclear Power (28.7%)
Nuclear Fuel (8.13%)
Nuclear Engineering (49.41%)

Necessary Skills

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

Peer Review (12.03%)
Nuclear Reactor (9.34%)
Project Engineering (4.63%)
Chemistry (8.06%)
Risk Analysis (6.54%)
Valves (Piping) (5.95%)
Engineering Design Process (10.41%)
Technical Leadership (3.8%)
Project Management (21.89%)
Electrical Engineering (24.65%)
Systems Design (12.45%)
Procurement (14.83%)
Design Specifications (3.67%)
Construction (5.08%)
Commissioning (1.69%)
Systems Engineering (15.49%)
Mechanical Engineering (19.5%)
Radiation Protection (10.82%)
MATLAB (4.63%)
Nuclear Safety (10.37%)
Export Control (7.02%)
Environment Health And Safety (3.73%)
Project Schedules (2.63%)
Control Systems (7.81%)
Technical Writing (3.77%)
Auditing (3.39%)
Physics (20.09%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Chemical Reaction Engineering (5.12%)
Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Codes (4.56%)
Nuclear Design (3.84%)
Nuclear Fuel Cycle (6.81%)

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.

Nuclear Design (21.47%)
Chemical Reaction Engineering (28.63%)
Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Codes (25.53%)
Nuclear Fuel (45.45%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Nuclear Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Nuclear Project Manager
Nuclear Licensing Engineer
Nuclear Electrician
Instrumentation and Controls Engineer
Radiation Engineer
Survivability Engineer
Nuclear Mechanic
Nuclear Engineering Intern
Electrical 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 Nuclear Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Sargent & Lundy (289)
NextEra Energy (128)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (116)
Westinghouse Electric Company (103)
Lockheed Martin (92)
American Electric Power (76)
General Dynamics (66)
Sulzer (65)
Duke Energy (65)
Naval Nuclear Laboratory (62)

North Carolina

Duke Energy (38)
General Electric (23)
Sargent & Lundy (21)
Actalent (11)
GE Vernova (6)
Black & Veatch (6)
North Carolina State University (5)
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (3)
Alliance Of Professionals And Consultants (3)
ReNuke Services (3)

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