Electrical Engineer (General)
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Electrical Engineer designs, develops, and tests products and systems that use or produce electricity, including power generators, electric motors, radar and navigation systems, and communication systems. Works on larger electrical systems rather than small electronic products or devices.
Job Outlook
There were 2352 Electrical Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 77772 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Electrical Engineer industry, which includes the Electrical Engineer (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Electrical 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 $98,305.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $91,719.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Electrical Engineer (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $86,580.
Education and Experience
Posted Electrical 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 | 77.36% |
| Master's Degree | 22.64% |
| Doctoral Degree | 6.19% |
| Other | 2.31% |
Posted Electrical 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 | 18.73% |
| 3 to 5 years | 44.98% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16.79% |
| 9+ years | 19.5% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Electrical 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 (39.41%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (23.07%)
- Management (18.87%)
- Problem Solving (18.09%)
- Coordinating (17.76%)
- Leadership (17%)
- Writing (16.79%)
- Operations (16.49%)
- Planning (15.75%)
- Research (14.13%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- SKM (Power System Software) (7.9%)
- Electrical Engineering (86.57%)
- AutoCAD (23.18%)
- Electrical Systems (23.75%)
- Printed Circuit Board (8.6%)
- Power Distribution (13.49%)
- Short Circuits (7.24%)
- Project Management (23.71%)
- Transformers (Electrical) (6.6%)
- Electric Power Systems (17.14%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Computer-Aided Design (9.39%)
- Automation (10.94%)
- Electrical Wiring (7.41%)
- Control Systems (11.95%)
- Autodesk Revit (10.99%)
- Construction (10.68%)
- Engineering Design Process (15.16%)
- Electronics (9.88%)
- High Voltage (7.85%)
- Electrical Equipment (9.22%)
- Mechanical Engineering (7.89%)
- Debugging (7.79%)
- Programmable Logic Controllers (10.75%)
- Procurement (8.57%)
- Machinery (3.63%)
- Systems Design (7.37%)
- New Product Development (8.88%)
- Commissioning (6.88%)
- Human Machine Interfaces (7.65%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Medium Voltage (4.34%)
- Analog Electronics (3.22%)
- Arc Flash (3.06%)
- Engineering Calculations (5.66%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (5.42%)
- Circuit Design (4.94%)
- National Electrical Codes (5.47%)
- Control Engineering (3.41%)
- ETAP (6.88%)
- Electric Power Distribution (4.15%)
- Electrical System Design (3.16%)
- Motor Control (4.49%)
- Electrical Substation (3.26%)
- National Electrical Safety Code (4.73%)
- Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) (5.5%)
- One-Line Diagram (5.28%)
- Switchgear (5.07%)
- Low Voltage (6.73%)
- Hardware Design (3.57%)
- Programmable Logic Controllers Programming (3.83%)
- Load Flow Analysis (3.52%)
- Schematic Capture (4.87%)
- Printed Circuit Board Design (3.84%)
- Microcontrollers (3.34%)
- Wiring Diagram (5.29%)
- Material Selection (3.34%)
- Power Electronics (3.29%)
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.
- Power Distribution (28.01%)
- Analog Electronics (6.69%)
- Arc Flash (6.36%)
- Electrical System Design (6.56%)
- ETAP (14.28%)
- Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (11.26%)
- Hardware Design (7.41%)
- Load Flow Analysis (7.3%)
- Motor Control (9.32%)
- National Electrical Safety Code (9.81%)
- Electric Power Systems (35.58%)
- Schematic Capture (10.12%)
- Transformers (Electrical) (13.7%)
- Electrical Substation (6.77%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Electrical Engineer (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Electrical Engineer
- Controls Engineer
- Electrical Design Engineer
- Principal Electrical Engineer
- Transmission Line Engineer
- Lead Electrical Engineer
- Electrical Engineering Intern
- Electrical Power Engineer
- Electrical Systems Engineer
- Staff 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.
- Electrical Engineering Manager
- Electrical Design Manager
- Electrical Controls Engineer
- Utilities & Power Distribution Engineer
- Solar Engineer
- Electrical Project Engineer
- Renewable Energy Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Electrical Engineer (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (4351)
- Black & Veatch (2479)
- Raytheon Technologies (1382)
- Sargent & Lundy (1149)
- CDM Smith (965)
- Randstad (928)
- L3Harris Technologies (764)
- GPAC (746)
- Jacobs Engineering Group (699)
- ManpowerGroup (696)
North Carolina
- Black & Veatch (236)
- Actalent (212)
- Sargent & Lundy (69)
- Siemens (40)
- Pike Electric (38)
- Kiewit Corporation (36)
- Randstad (36)
- Leidos (30)
- CDM Smith (29)
- WSP Global (23)
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!
- 5G Technology Graduate Certificates
- ASIC Design and Verification Graduate Certificates
- Electrical Engineering Master's Degrees
- Electrical Engineering Graduate Certificates
- Engineering – 2+2 Undergraduate Degrees
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.