---
title: "Outside Plant Engineer"
description: "Designs the routes for fiber optic and copper cable networks on poles and underground, producing the plans crews use to build broadband networks."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/outside-plant-engineer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Outside Plant Engineer

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9052 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9052.00

Designs the routes for fiber optic and copper cable networks on poles and underground, producing the plans crews use to build broadband networks.

Also advertised as: OSP Engineer; Fiber Network Designer; OSP Designer; Fiber Design Engineer; Telecommunications Outside Plant Designer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $74,330 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $35.73/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $45,310 to $103,680, with the middle half between $54,310 and $95,850
- **Total US employment:** 97,720
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -3.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 8,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 62/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 97,720 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $45,310 |
| 25th | $54,310 |
| 50th (median) | $74,330 |
| 75th | $95,850 |
| 90th | $103,680 |
| Mean (average) | $73,940 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RI | $103,810 | $101,496 | 490 |
| MA | $103,410 | $97,781 | 2,230 |
| NJ | $102,090 | $93,828 | 2,540 |
| NY | $100,960 | $93,550 | 8,530 |
| CA | $97,980 | $88,493 | 8,810 |
| DC | $97,600 | $88,807 | 500 |
| AK | $97,450 | $95,204 | 390 |
| CT | $97,140 | $93,755 | 500 |
| DE | $93,850 | $94,031 | 310 |
| ME | $92,120 | $94,920 | 680 |
| WV | $89,690 | $100,216 | 1,270 |
| NH | $86,370 | $82,917 | 540 |
| MD | $82,380 | $78,488 | 2,400 |
| PA | $81,020 | $83,036 | 3,890 |
| HI | $79,880 | $72,651 | 680 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/outside-plant-engineer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/outside-plant-engineer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 103,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 99,900 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 3,500 jobs, or -3.4%. Declining: -3.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 8,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Survey routes for new fiber and cable networks
- Design aerial and underground cable layouts
- Calculate pole loading and clearances for new attachments
- Lay out splice points, cabinets and fiber distribution
- Prepare construction drawings and bills of materials
- Assemble permit packages for public rights of way and pole owners
- Maintain network records and fiber assignment maps
- Inspect construction and resolve field issues

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Installation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Telecommunications — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.48 |
| C — Conventional | 4.50 |
| I — Investigative | 3.51 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.01 |
| S — Social | 1.58 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 93.0 |
| ISTP | 79.2 |
| ESTJ | 75.7 |
| ISFJ | 74.0 |
| INTJ | 70.2 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Telecommunications Line Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telecommunications-line-installer-and-repairer) — median $74,330
- [Telecommunications Equipment Installer and Repairer, Except Line Installers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telecommunications-equipment-installer-and-repairer) — median $63,890
- [Electrical Power-Line Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-power-line-installer-and-repairer) — median $95,320
- [Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radio-cellular-and-tower-equipment-installer-and-repairer) — median $63,520
- [Audiovisual Equipment Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/audiovisual-equipment-installer-and-repairer) — median $52,600
- [Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer, Transportation Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-installer-and-repairer-transportation-equipment) — median $84,890
- [Electrician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrician) — median $63,190
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Signal and Track Switch Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/signal-and-track-switch-repairer) — median $92,460
- [Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-and-fire-alarm-systems-installer) — median $60,070

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/outside-plant-engineer