Chemical Engineer vs Project Engineer

On pay, this one is close to even. Postings that state a salary put chemical engineers at $67k–$127k and project engineers at $67k–$122k, so the midpoints sit within $2k of each other. The difference between the two jobs is in the work and the skills, not the paycheck. By seniority and country: chemical engineer salary and project engineer salary.

On skills, they are related jobs with a real gap between them. There is a shared core, and then each side asks for things the other rarely does. The skills both sets of postings want most are Project Management, Procurement, AutoCAD, Quality Control, Lean / Six Sigma.

Yes, and the numbers say how far along you already are: a typical chemical engineer profile covers 42% of what project engineer postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 12–24 mo. The instrument lists the exact skills that make up the rest.

Going the other way, a typical project engineer profile covers 41% of what chemical engineer postings ask for.

Right now our board has 263 chemical engineer openings and 540 project engineer openings, each linking to the original posting. The board refreshes every night, so the counts move with the market. Hiring the most chemical engineers at the moment: Direct employer (160), Flex (3), Worley (3). For project engineers: Direct employer (248), Jobup (5), Yellowshark (4).