FlightWay / Careers / Environmental Engineers

Engineering & Science

Environmental Engineers

Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines.

Sector: Engineering & Science
Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
O*NET code: 17-2081.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Getting Information

a major part of the work — rated 85/100 for importance.
Working with Computers

a major part of the work — rated 85/100 for importance.
Making Decisions and Solving Problems

a major part of the work — rated 83/100 for importance.
Analyzing Data or Information

a major part of the work — rated 81/100 for importance.
Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings

a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.
Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards

a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.

Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines. Work may include waste treatment, site remediation, or pollution control technology.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Reading Comprehension

Needed at a high level (68/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Monitoring

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Writing

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Engineering and Technology

Needed at expert level (89/100), and rated 99/100 for importance.
Design

Needed at expert level (87/100), and rated 91/100 for importance.
Chemistry

Needed at a high level (71/100), and rated 76/100 for importance.
Mathematics

Needed at a high level (75/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.

Abilities

Oral Comprehension

Needed at a high level (70/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Written Expression

Needed at a high level (70/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Written Comprehension

Needed at a high level (68/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Inductive Reasoning

Needed at a high level (64/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A four-year bachelor's degree is the usual entry ticket.

Experience

Two to four years of related work, internships or research on top of the degree.

Training

Most of the learning happens before you are hired, not after.

What it pays

These are typical engineering compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Environmental Engineers specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.

SpaceX · NVIDIA · Boeing

$120k – $200k+

Manufacturing Corps

$85k – $140k

Local Engineering Firms

$65k – $110k

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
Part of the job is other people’s output, not only your own.From “Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others”
You own decisions rather than execute someone else’s.From “Making Decisions and Solving Problems”
Rules and standards are checkable and someone checks them.From “Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Environmental Engineers. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

More in Engineering & Science

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See your fit for Environmental Engineers

Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Environmental Engineers and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.