These are the engineering jobs with the highest salaries in the world. Regardless of your region, these are the common engineers getting more money and bonuses.
Everyone knows that engineers are among the highest-paid professionals in the world. Each one of us knows at least one engineer, and it’s a common observation that he or she lives with relatively fewer financial struggles.
Due to its difficulty and the global demand for the job, engineering remains the highest-paying field when it comes to median salaries.
This is one of the many reasons why many are motivated to pursue this career—because of the lucrative pay.
However, among the long list of engineering courses offered in universities worldwide, there are fields that offer much higher pay than others.
Here are six of those as evaluated from reports and statistics of reputable sources including GlassDoor Philippines, Indeed UK, Salary Explorer Singapore, and the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Petroleum Engineering
As the global demand for energy increases, the need for petroleum engineers increases. These engineers are responsible for the production of oil and gas.
The median salary for new petroleum engineers or offshore oil rig salary is estimated at $74,240 (Php 4.2 million), the highest across all engineering fields.
Later, this increases to $132,320 (Php 7.4 million) during mid-career and even $186,520 (Php 10.5 million) when there is ample work experience.
Because the petroleum engineering industry will have employees who will retire in the next decade, this is a recommended career choice for filling available positions.
Electrical Engineering
The descendants of Nikola Tesla, electrical engineers, have one of the highest median salaries in engineering.
Their job mostly revolves around designing, testing, and supervising electrical equipment, but they could work in related industries.
Starting electrical engineers could earn a median salary of $57,330 (Php 3.2 million). With enough experience for a mid-career engineer, they get a median salary of $89,180 (Php 5 million).
Note that this sector’s job growth is expected to be around 6%, which is lower than the average.
This will go on until 2024.
Computer Engineering
Computer engineering is divided into two main areas: hardware and software.
The former deals with physical computer systems and components, while the latter involves applying engineering discipline to the creation of software.
However, the two have a relatively similar median salary, and software is expected to become more in demand in the future.
The pay for starting computer engineers—either hardware or software—is estimated at $63,970 (Php 3.6 million).
This goes up in mid-career at about $150,130 (Php 8.5 million).
Aerospace Engineering
Planning to take a degree in aerospace engineering? The time is now.
This field, which studies the development of aircraft and spacecraft, has one of the highest-paying jobs.
Fresh aerospace engineers can expect a starting salary of $65,450 (Php 3.675 million), which will become $103,720 (Php 5.8 million) over time upon reaching the middle of their career.
Due to the cutbacks in space exploration, job growth for aerospace engineers is likely to be only 5% over the next few years, which is lower than the average job market.
Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineers enjoy high-paying jobs. They are usually employed in the areas of manufacturing and research and are tasked with producing, transforming, transporting, and properly using chemicals, materials, and energy.
The median starting salary for chemical engineers is approximately $94,000 (Php 5.275 million), while the mid-career salary is estimated at $154,840 (Php 8.7 million).
However, a caution: the market for chemical engineers is expected to be reasonably flat over the next few years.
What is set to pull this trend up is the related industries like biomedical engineering, which is expected to have a much faster average job growth.
Materials Engineering
As the name suggests, materials engineering deals with developing and testing materials mostly used in producing industrial and consumer products.
Engineers in this field are responsible for opening doors to new technologies across the industry.
The median starting salary of materials engineers is $52,900 (Php 3 million).
As time goes by, it increases to $85,150 (Php 4.8 million) during mid-career.
Job growth in this sector is seen to be at around 9% until 2024.
