How Do You Become a Health and Safety Engineer?

What is a health and safety engineer?

Health and safety engineers play a crucial role in protecting and promoting public health. They inspect facilities, machinery, and safety equipment. The safety engineer has the important knowledge and skills to identify and correct potentially hazardous situations in both workplace and public environments.
 
Working as a health and safety engineer can be a rewarding line of work for those with a strong interest in design and health and safety procedures. Keeping consumers from getting sick or injured is satisfying and important work. Ensuring that safe products are on the market, that buildings are safe, and that employees can enjoy a safe working environment accomplishes this goal. Work as a safety engineer ensures public safety. It keeps people and property safe wherever they may be or whatever product they happen to be using. This job makes an impact on people and the environment, and it can be a satisfying career path. 
 
Individuals who enter this serious profession and become safety engineers are getting into a strong field. It provides excellent pay. It has positive job growth. And, it offers opportunities to design systems that protect public health through the prevention of accidents and illnesses. Entering the professional world as a health and safety engineer is a responsible position. It has steep education requirements and requires work experience. It may also need licensure, depending on state requirements. Read on to find information to help start you on the road to becoming a health and safety engineer. 

What education does one need to become a health and safety engineer?An image of a hard hat, law book, gavel, and blueprints for our article on how to become a health and safety engineer

To enter this interesting field and become a safety engineer, the first step is earning a bachelor’s degree. Typically, aspiring health and safety engineers get a bachelor’s degree in environmental health and safety. Sometimes one of the engineering disciplines will fit their needs. Engineering disciplines include electrical, chemical, mechanical, industrial, and systems engineering. Students who study engineering may seek a concentration in environmental health and safety. This would put them on a path to become a health and safety engineer.

Bachelor’s degree programs typically include classroom instruction, laboratory work, and fieldwork studies. Engineering students aiming to become health and safety engineers should include several specific courses in their studies. Occupational health and safety, industrial hygiene, ergonomic and environmental safety are courses that will help prepare them for the field. 
 
Five-year programs are offered at some universities. There students earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in an accelerated program. A master’s degree opens the door for the safety engineer to enter the occupation at a higher level. It enables them to develop and put in place important safety systems in their work. 
 
Many universities offer cooperative education programs. Students gain valuable and practical work experience while continuing to complete their education. This work experience may set them apart when seeking employment as a safety engineer. Many employers prefer to hire candidates who have some practical experience under their belt. They will be ready to hit the ground running. The benefit of cooperative education experience cannot be overemphasized. Cooperative education experience enables graduates to have work experience as they begin to apply for jobs.
 
If you are investigating engineering programs, it is important to make sure that the program you choose is accredited. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) does this. Graduating from an accredited program enables graduates to take qualifying exams in engineering. 

What valuable certifications might a health and safety engineer acquire?An image of two engineers for our article on how to become a health and safety engineer

A license is not required for health and safety engineers when they first enter the work world. However, work in a higher-level position may require a Professional Engineering (PE) license. This license has specific requirements to pursue. To get state licensure as a PE, candidates must :
  • Have an engineering degree from a program that is accredited by ABET
  • Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam
  • Pass the Professional Engineering (PE) exam
  • Have a minimum of four years of relevant work experience. 
The FE exam can be taken the first year after graduating with an engineering degree. Engineers who pass the FE exam are known as engineers in training (EITs) or engineer interns (EIs). This is followed by getting the required work experience. Once the candidate has taken the FE exam and has the required work experience, they are ready to take the PE exam. 
 
Health and safety engineers also can get valuable professional certifications. This will boost their career possibilities. Certifications can be from a number of certifying organizations, including the following:
  • The Board of Certified Safety Professionals offers the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) certification, the Occupational Health and Safety Technologist (OHST) certification, and the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) certification.
Each individual state issues its own licenses and has its own licensing requirements. As long as the licensing state’s requirements meet or exceed a different state’s licensing requirements, that state will most likely recognize licensure from the licensing state. States may have continuing education requirements for engineering license renewal. 

What are important qualities in a successful health and safety engineer?An image of two engineers working on a wind turbine for our article on how to become a health and safety engineer

Communication skills are important for the health and safety engineer. Health and safety engineers need to be able to interpret federal and state regulations and their intent. This allows them to propose proper designs for specific work environments. Health and safety engineers must be skilled communicators. They must promote workplace safety. They often prepare and present training materials to other workers. They must be able to communicate and describe new regulations and procedures to a variety of audiences. The audience may not be in the field or familiar with technical terminology.
 
Creativity is also an important characteristic of the health and safety engineer. They need to develop designs to solve problems. The health and safety engineer must be creative in noticing potential problems and finding remedies for them.  They must be creative as they deal with situations that are unique to a project and a project’s design. 
 
Critical-thinking skills help the health and safety engineer as well. They need to identify hazards to people and property in the workplace or other environment, including in the home. Hazards need to be identified and remedied before they cause physical damage or become a threat to human or environmental health.
 
Observational skills are important traits in a health and safety engineer. Safety engineers have the skill to observe and learn how an operation or a piece of safety equipment functions in order to identify possible risks to people and property. These professionals have the ability to think in terms of overall processes within an organization. They can recommend important systemic changes to minimize those risks.
 
Problem-solving skills are essential in designing solutions for organizational operations. Their solutions protect people and property from damage. Skilled health and safety engineers take into account processes from many systems at the same time. And they anticipate human reactions to the recommended and needed changes.

What is the employment outlook for safety engineers?

In the year 2020, there were 24,100 health and safety engineers employed in the United States. This number is expected to grow to 25,600 in 2030. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.gov), employment of health and safety engineers is expected to grow six percent from 2020 to 2030. This is about as fast as the average for all occupations. Many of the expected openings result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force for reasons such as retirement. 

Where do health and safety engineers work?An image of a team of engineers for our article on how to become a health and safety engineer

Health and safety engineers typically are employed full-time. They work in a variety of settings. The largest employer of safety engineers is the area of manufacturing.

The other largest employers, in order of prevalence, include state and local government. Construction, engineering services, and management, scientific, and technical consulting services also employ them.

Buildings, products, and processes continue to become more complex, and new health and regulations are created every year. These safety engineers’ skills and knowledge will, therefore, be important. They can reduce costs, save lives, and produce safe consumer products. Although safety engineers often work in offices, they also spend time in the field at worksites. This may require some travel. 

How much money does a health and safety engineer make? 

A health and safety engineer can expect a median annual income of $94,240 as of May 2020. Median annual wage is the wage that half the workers in an occupation earned more than and half earned less than. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the lowest 10 percent earned less than $55,390. The highest 10 percent earned more than $144,800.
As in most professional occupations, wages for a health and safety engineer depend on education level and certifications. Years of work experience in the field, geographical location, and the type of organization they are employed by also matter. The median wage for all other occupations as of May 2020 was $41,950.
In May of 2020, the median annual wages for safety engineers and the top industries in which they worked were:
  • Engineering services: $103,160
  • Management, scientific, and technical consulting services: $97,750
  • Manufacturing: $92,490
  • Government: $90,140
  • Construction: $81,850
States offering the top-paying wages for health and safety engineers and the average wages they earned in 2020 were:
  • California: $119,390
  • New Mexico: $117,930
  • District of Columbia: $117,140
  • New Jersey: $108,950
  • Delaware: $107,830 

Where are the most jobs for safety engineers? 

Safety engineers are employed in all states. However, certain states have more jobs in this field than others. Some states also have a high concentration of jobs. In some geographical areas, the pay is higher than others. 
 
States with the highest number of jobs in health and safety engineering and the average wages they earned in 2020 were:
 
  • Texas: $106,330
  • California: $119,390
  • New York: $100,660
  • Pennsylvania: $102,340
  • Florida: $83,520
 
States with the highest concentration of jobs in health and safety engineering and the average wages they earned in 2020 were:
 
  • Alaska: $96,600
  • Utah: $74,840
  • Oklahoma: $94,420
  • New Mexico: $117,930
  • West Virginia: $72,380

What are the professional organizations for safety engineers?

There are many professional organizations for the professionals in this field. They support them and provide continuing education. Professional organizations promote the profession, provide education in the field, and conduct research. Here are three professional organizations to check out to gain more information about the interesting field of health and safety engineering:
 
 
 

What are some similar careers to safety engineering?

Are you interested in the field of health and safety engineering, but not quite sure if it’s the right fit for your career aspirations? There are a number of jobs that have similarities to safety engineering that you may want to check out. These jobs include: safety engineer building inspector, fire inspector, industrial engineer, mining and geological engineer, and occupational health and safety specialist. Compare these similar jobs for duties, education, job growth, and pay.
 
Working as a health and safety engineer can be a very rewarding career. It is an important part of protecting and promoting health. If you enjoy designing things and making a large contribution to the safety and well-being of others, a career in safety engineering may be just what you’re looking for. For many, deciding to become a health and safety engineer was one of the best decisions they ever made. They found this to be an interesting and meaningful career. Besides, it provides an excellent income. 

By Carol Dolan BS RN BSN CDCES

Updated May 2022

Carol graduated with her BS in Nutrition from Montclair State University and her BSN in Nursing from Rowan University. She is a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) currently working with adults and children living with diabetes in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

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This concludes our article on how to become a health and safety engineer.