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 67 Energy Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 2920 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 $117,942.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $117,942.

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 $100,534.

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	74.14%
Master's Degree	30.75%
Doctoral Degree	13.46%
Other	2.74%

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	15.38%
3 to 5 years	48.55%
6 to 8 years	19.68%
9+ years	16.4%

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 (46.2%)
Operations (31.2%)
Management (27.36%)
Research (25.86%)
Planning (24.66%)
Leadership (21.51%)
Writing (18.39%)
Presentations (18.08%)
Microsoft Excel (16.23%)
Problem Solving (16.06%)

Defining Skills

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

Energy Conservation Measures (9.7%)
Carbon Footprint Reduction (7.29%)
Building Performance Modeling And Simulations (9.25%)
HVAC (31.16%)
Electrical Engineering (26.2%)
Mechanical Engineering (23.46%)
Project Management (36.01%)

Necessary Skills

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

Energy Audits (19.1%)
Natural Gas (4.33%)
Energy Modeling (19.95%)
Energy Management (20.36%)
Energy Consumption (17.1%)
Building Science (4.26%)
Construction (14.99%)
Energy Management Systems (6.18%)
Accounting (3.48%)
Data Analysis (21.32%)
Building Management System (11.84%)
Business Development (7.03%)
Procurement (13.4%)
Economics (11.55%)
Auditing (16.54%)
Benchmarking (4.52%)
Business Case (3.52%)
Feasibility Studies (4.74%)
Control Systems (11.14%)
Energy Conservation (14.73%)
Facility Management (3.55%)
Distributed Generation (7.44%)
Renewable Energy (10.66%)
Electric Power Systems (9.84%)
Environmental Science (6.25%)
MATLAB (7.44%)
Python (Programming Language) (14.1%)
Mechanical Systems (5.33%)
Public Utility (7.18%)
Net Zero (4.29%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Carbon Accounting (3.22%)
Carbon Offsets (1.7%)
Climate Change Mitigation (4.18%)

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 (100%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

Energy Engineer
Carbon Analyst
Energy Engineering Manager
Energy Modeler
Carbon Specialist
Energy Manager
Manager of Wind Energy
Optimization Engineer
Energy Management Engineer
Combustion 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 (177)
Trane Technologies (119)
Noblis (101)
Siemens (64)
Chemours (46)
ICF International (42)
AECOM (39)
Sargent & Lundy (34)
HNTB (33)
McKinstry (31)

North Carolina

Trane Technologies (4)
Schneider Electric (3)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (3)
Sargent & Lundy (3)
Solv Energy (2)
Siemens Energy (2)
Flexgen (2)
K2M Design (2)
Electric Power Research Institute (2)
RTI International (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