How To Become A Project Lead Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a project lead engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Experts

Marco Schoen Ph.D.,

Brian Denton Ph.D.

A project lead engineer is an organized engineer who plans, manages, and ensures projects are completed on time. As a project lead engineer, you will be tasked with communicating and finding out what the client wants, negotiating the price and timescale needed for completion, and drawing up a detailed plan on how to achieve the desired outcome. Also, it is your responsibility to ensure there are adequate and suitable materials for project development and regularly report the progress to senior managers or clients. In addition, you must train and transfer knowledge and skills to subordinates.

To be a lead project engineer, you must have a degree in engineering or a related field. Also, you must possess prior experience in field and project planning and excellent verbal and leadership skills. Project lead engineers make between $79,000 and$119,000, which is $97,523 on average every year or $46.89 per hour.

What general advice would you give to a Project Lead Engineer?

Marco Schoen Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center (MCERC), Idaho State University

Stay current. Engineering evolves continuously; new tools, new technologies, and new areas where engineers can contribute, learn, and work. When graduating, students have the feeling they are set for their careers. However, this is not true; they might be set to start their careers. To be consistently successful in their pages, they need to stay informed and updated.

ScoreProject Lead EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $106,946

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.5

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 15.22%

Black or African American 4.25%

Hispanic or Latino 10.43%

Unknown 3.88%

White 66.05%

Gender

female 13.19%

male 86.81%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.1

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a project lead engineer

Explore project lead engineer education requirements

Most common project lead engineer degrees

Bachelor's

73.4 %

Master's

15.8 %

Associate

7.3 %

Start to develop specific project lead engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	14.46%
Renewable Energy	7.25%
Project Execution	4.95%
Engineering Design	3.37%
Autocad	3.30%

Complete relevant project lead engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New project lead engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a project lead engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real project lead engineer resumes.

Research project lead engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage IP environments using Cisco and Microsoft products.
Lead manufacturing process of all parts using lathe, mill, and CNC in university machine shop.
Manage the reverse engineering of all standard product lines to create SolidWorks models, product conceptualizations, and detail drawings.
Lead numerous ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 implementations from planning through certification in industries ranging from medical devices to government services.

Get project lead engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a project lead engineer. The most common roles before becoming a project lead engineer include project engineer, design engineer team lead and engineer.

Prepare your project lead engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your project lead engineer resume.

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