---
title: "Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator"
description: "Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-8021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-8021.00

Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines, and steam boilers.

Also advertised as: Auxiliary Operator; Boiler Operator; Boiler Technician (Boiler Tech); Operating Engineer; Operator; Plant Utilities Engineer; Recovery Boiler Operator; Stationary Engineer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $78,620 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.80/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $50,590 to $125,390, with the middle half between $63,160 and $101,150
- **Total US employment:** 28,250
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — 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 28,250 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $50,590 |
| 25th | $63,160 |
| 50th (median) | $78,620 |
| 75th | $101,150 |
| 90th | $125,390 |
| Mean (average) | $83,960 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IL | $115,780 | $115,829 | 1,680 |
| WY | $111,920 | $120,745 | 100 |
| HI | $103,400 | $94,042 | 70 |
| CT | $94,870 | $91,565 | 270 |
| NY | $94,070 | $87,166 | 4,480 |
| WA | $91,530 | $85,532 | 520 |
| CA | $90,650 | $81,873 | 5,840 |
| DC | $90,470 | $82,320 | 620 |
| AK | $88,330 | $86,294 | 90 |
| MD | $85,240 | $81,213 | 850 |
| MI | $82,800 | $86,055 | 490 |
| CO | $81,310 | $78,902 | 560 |
| MA | $80,800 | $76,402 | 530 |
| NV | $79,110 | $79,127 | 60 |
| MT | $77,690 | $82,086 | 110 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 31,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 32,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,000 jobs, or +3.1%. About as fast as average: 3.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,200 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:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 47.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 37.8% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 10.5% |
| Some College Courses | 4.5% |

## What the work involves

- Analyze problems and take appropriate action to ensure continuous and reliable operation of equipment and systems.
- Observe and interpret readings on gauges, meters, and charts registering various aspects of boiler operation to ensure that boilers are operating properly.
- Monitor and inspect equipment, computer terminals, switches, valves, gauges, alarms, safety devices, and meters to detect leaks or malfunctions and to ensure that equipment is operating efficiently and safely.
- Maintain daily logs of operation, maintenance, and safety activities, including test results, instrument readings, and details of equipment malfunctions and maintenance work.
- Operate or tend stationary engines, boilers, and auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, compressors, or air-conditioning equipment, to supply and maintain steam or heat for buildings, marine vessels, or pneumatic tools.
- Adjust controls and/or valves on equipment to provide power, and to regulate and set operations of system or industrial processes.
- Perform or arrange for repairs, such as complete overhauls, replacement of defective valves, gaskets, or bearings, or fabrication of new parts.
- Clean and lubricate boilers and auxiliary equipment and make minor adjustments as needed, using hand tools.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 2.3 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.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — 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 | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.40 |
| I — Investigative | 3.16 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.22 |
| S — Social | 1.10 |
| 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 | 91.4 |
| ISTP | 80.1 |
| ISFJ | 73.3 |
| ESTJ | 72.3 |
| INTJ | 70.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Control and Valve Installer and Repairer, Except Mechanical Door](https://nuecareer.com/careers/control-and-valve-installer-and-repairer) — median $74,340
- [Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-compressor-and-gas-pumping-station-operator) — median $77,320
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineer) — median $104,110
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanic and Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanic-and-installer) — median $61,010
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820
- [Power Distributor and Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher) — median $106,730

## 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/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator