---
title: "Rail Signal Engineer"
description: "Designs the signal, interlocking and train control systems that keep trains safely separated on railroads and transit lines."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-signal-engineer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Rail Signal Engineer

**Category:** Architecture and Engineering · **SOC code:** 17-2051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 17-2051.01

Designs the signal, interlocking and train control systems that keep trains safely separated on railroads and transit lines.

Also advertised as: Railway Signal Engineer; Signal Design Engineer; Train Control Engineer; Signal and Train Control Engineer; Railroad Signal Engineer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $100,840 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $48.48/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $68,240 to $163,220, with the middle half between $79,930 and $129,680
- **Total US employment:** 367,840
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 22,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 35/100 — 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 367,840 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $68,240 |
| 25th | $79,930 |
| 50th (median) | $100,840 |
| 75th | $129,680 |
| 90th | $163,220 |
| Mean (average) | $108,670 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $122,500 | $110,639 | 55,180 |
| AK | $114,730 | $112,086 | 1,670 |
| WA | $110,000 | $102,791 | 12,590 |
| MA | $106,730 | $100,920 | 9,450 |
| LA | $105,380 | $119,469 | 3,780 |
| OR | $105,250 | $101,828 | 4,890 |
| NJ | $104,660 | $96,190 | 6,900 |
| NV | $104,310 | $104,332 | 3,560 |
| NM | $103,900 | $112,675 | 1,350 |
| DC | $103,880 | $94,521 | 1,650 |
| NY | $103,760 | $96,144 | 17,500 |
| CT | $103,150 | $99,556 | 4,370 |
| NE | $103,150 | $114,480 | 2,360 |
| SC | $101,600 | $108,374 | 7,180 |
| MN | $101,480 | $102,899 | 4,710 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 380,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 405,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 24,500 jobs, or +6.4%. Faster than average: 6.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 22,700 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:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 77.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 9.1% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 9.1% |
| Master's Degree | 4.6% |

## What the work involves

- Design signal layouts and interlocking logic
- Prepare signal circuit plans and drawings
- Design positive train control and train control systems
- Run safety analyses on signal designs
- Test and commission signal systems before cutover
- Coordinate track outages with operations
- Review contractor and vendor signal designs

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 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), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.38 |
| I — Investigative | 5.36 |
| C — Conventional | 4.53 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.09 |
| A — Artistic | 2.13 |
| S — Social | 1.97 |

### 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 | 92.9 |
| ISTP | 83.3 |
| INTJ | 82.6 |
| ESTJ | 71.2 |
| ISFJ | 64.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Transportation Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-engineer) — median $100,840
- [Civil Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineer) — median $100,840
- [Transportation Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-planner) — median $101,110
- [Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $64,950
- [Traffic Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/traffic-technician) — median $59,090
- [Highway Maintenance Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/highway-maintenance-worker) — median $50,260
- [Construction and Building Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-and-building-inspector) — median $74,690
- [Construction Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-manager) — median $114,990
- [Environmental Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-engineer) — median $107,110
- [Water/Wastewater Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-wastewater-engineer) — median $100,840

## 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/rail-signal-engineer