What Can You Do With a Civil Engineering Degree?

Below are 14 occupations that civil engineering graduates commonly move into, most common first. Civil Engineer leads at $100,840 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025); across the whole list the middle occupation pays $100,840 and 1 of 14 typically need a graduate degree. A major is a body of study, not a job assignment, so treat every entry as a common destination rather than a promise.

What the degree actually involves: Structures, soils, hydraulics, and surveying, plus site visits and a lot of standards.

Civil engineering feeds the built environment, so the destinations split between design work at a consultancy, delivery work on site, and the public-sector roles that permit, inspect and plan what gets built. Professional licensure matters more here than in most engineering fields and shapes how far the design route goes.

Common destinations: 14
Median pay range: $64,950–$171,270
Projected to grow: 11 of 14
Need a graduate degree: 1 of 14

How this list was built

The destinations are the occupations civil engineering graduates commonly move into. They are ordered by how common the destination is, not by what it pays, so the ordinary outcomes sit at the top where they belong rather than being buried under the flattering ones.
Every destination is matched to a real occupation in the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. A destination that does not resolve to a bank occupation is dropped rather than shown without data.
All pay, growth, openings and education figures come from that bank: BLS OEWS May 2025 for wages, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 for projected change, annual openings and the typical education needed for entry, and O*NET 30.3 Database for what the work involves. Nothing is estimated and no figure here is generated by an AI model.
Destinations whose BLS typical entry education is a master’s or a doctoral or professional degree are marked Graduate study on the list. That flag is read from the federal data, not asserted by us.
What this list is not: a ranking of which destination you should pick, a statement of how many graduates reach each one, or a promise that the degree entitles you to any of them. Read the full methodology.

14 careers a civil engineering degree commonly leads to

Most common destination first. Every card carries the national median annual wage, projected employment change and openings over 2024–2034, and the typical education people already in the job hold.

1. Civil Engineer
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$100,840
Growth
+5.0%
Openings/yr
23,600
Education
Bachelor's
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation pr…
Civil Engineer salary & outlook →
2. Construction Manager
Management
Median pay
$114,990
Growth
+8.7%
Openings/yr
46,800
Education
Bachelor's
Plan, direct, or coordinate, usually through subordinate supervisory personnel, activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities, and systems.
Construction Manager salary & outlook →
3. Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$64,950
Growth
+2.1%
Openings/yr
5,500
Education
Associate's
Apply theory and principles of civil engineering in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of structures and facilities under the direction of engineering staff or physical scientists.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
4. Transportation Engineer
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$100,840
Growth
+5.0%
Openings/yr
23,600
Education
Bachelor's
Develop plans for surface transportation projects, according to established engineering standards and state or federal construction policy.
Transportation Engineer salary & outlook →
5. Water/Wastewater Engineer
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$100,840
Growth
+5.0%
Openings/yr
23,600
Education
Bachelor's
Design or oversee projects involving provision of potable water, disposal of wastewater and sewage, or prevention of flood-related damage.
Water/Wastewater Engineer salary & outlook →
6. Environmental Engineer
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$107,110
Growth
+3.9%
Openings/yr
3,000
Education
Bachelor's
Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
7. Construction and Building Inspector
Construction and Extraction
Median pay
$74,690
Growth
-0.8%
Openings/yr
14,800
Education
High school
Inspect structures using engineering skills to determine structural soundness and compliance with specifications, building codes, and other regulations.
Construction and Building Inspector salary & outlook →
8. Surveyor
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$75,440
Growth
+4.4%
Openings/yr
3,900
Education
Bachelor's
Make exact measurements and determine property boundaries.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
9. Cost Estimator
Business and Financial Operations
Median pay
$78,740
Growth
-4.2%
Openings/yr
16,900
Education
Bachelor's
Prepare cost estimates for product manufacturing, construction projects, or services to aid management in bidding on or determining price of product or service.
Cost Estimator salary & outlook →
10. Urban and Regional Planner
Life, Physical, and Social Science
Graduate study
Median pay
$89,320
Growth
+3.4%
Openings/yr
3,400
Education
Master's
Develop comprehensive plans and programs for use of land and physical facilities of jurisdictions, such as towns, cities, counties, and metropolitan areas.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
11. Transportation Planner
Life, Physical, and Social Science
Median pay
$101,110
Growth
-1.7%
Openings/yr
3,200
Education
Bachelor's
Prepare studies for proposed transportation projects.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
12. Mining and Geological Engineer, Including Mining Safety Engineers
Architecture and Engineering
Median pay
$106,220
Growth
+0.7%
Openings/yr
400
Education
Bachelor's
Conduct subsurface surveys to identify the characteristics of potential land or mining development sites.
Full page coming in the next tranche. Data shown here is from the same bank.
13. Project Management Specialist
Business and Financial Operations
Median pay
$102,320
Growth
+5.6%
Openings/yr
78,200
Education
Bachelor's
Analyze and coordinate the schedule, timeline, procurement, staffing, and budget of a product or service on a per project basis.
Project Management Specialist salary & outlook →
14. Architectural and Engineering Manager
Management
Median pay
$171,270
Growth
+3.8%
Openings/yr
14,500
Education
Bachelor's
Plan, direct, or coordinate activities in such fields as architecture and engineering or research and development in these fields.
Architectural and Engineering Manager salary & outlook →

Does a civil engineering degree decide your career?

For most people, no. Federal survey data has consistently found that only a minority of US graduates work in a job closely related to their degree field, and that share falls further with each year after graduation. The exceptions are the fields where a licence sits at the end of the degree, and they are exceptions precisely because the route is fixed.

The practical reading of the list above is this: 13 of the 14 destinations are typically entered with a bachelor's degree or less, and 1 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). If the destination you want is in the second group, the extra years are part of the decision from day one, not a detail to sort out later.

Not sure this is the right major in the first place? Take the free college major quiz — fifteen questions that score what you like doing against what each major actually asks of you, and show the same real occupations underneath every match.

Civil Engineering degrees: FAQ

Do you need a master's degree after a civil engineering degree?

For 13 of the 14 destinations on this page, no: BLS Employment Projections (2024–2034) list a bachelor's degree or less as the typical entry requirement. The other 1 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree, and each is marked on the list below. "Typical" describes what people already in the job hold, not an admissions rule.

What is the highest-paying career a civil engineering degree leads to?

Of the 14 destinations on this page, Architectural and Engineering Manager has the highest national median wage at $171,270 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), against $50,980 for all US occupations. Typical entry education for it is bachelor's. A median is the midpoint of everyone in the job today, so a first salary normally sits well below it.

Which of these careers hires the most people each year?

Project Management Specialist, with about 78,200 projected openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). Across all 14 destinations on this page the combined figure is roughly 261,400 openings a year. Openings include replacing people who leave, not just new jobs, which is why a slow-growing occupation can still hire heavily.

Is a civil engineering degree worth it?

That depends on the price you pay for it, which this page cannot know. What it can tell you is where the destinations sit: the middle occupation on this list pays $100,840 a year against $50,980 for all US occupations, the range runs $64,950–$171,270, and 11 of the 14 are projected to grow over 2024–2034 (BLS OEWS May 2025, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034).

How was this list of careers put together?

The destinations were curated as the occupations civil engineering graduates commonly move into, ordered by how common rather than by pay, then matched against the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. Every figure shown comes from that bank: wages from BLS OEWS May 2025, projected change and annual openings and typical entry education from BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034, and occupation descriptions from O*NET 30.3 Database. Nothing is estimated, and no figure on this page is generated by an AI model.

How this list was built

14 careers a civil engineering degree commonly leads to

1. Civil Engineer

2. Construction Manager

3. Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician

4. Transportation Engineer

5. Water/Wastewater Engineer

6. Environmental Engineer

7. Construction and Building Inspector

8. Surveyor

9. Cost Estimator

10. Urban and Regional Planner

11. Transportation Planner

12. Mining and Geological Engineer, Including Mining Safety Engineers

13. Project Management Specialist

14. Architectural and Engineering Manager