As a project engineer, you focus on the technical aspects of a project, often in terms of product/process development or optimisation.
Companies frequently choose a project-based approach to implementing their objectives. As a project engineer, you're responsible for managing development and optimisation projects. Your task is to achieve the project objectives in compliance with all customer specifications and general conditions and coordinate all those involved in the project. At the same time, you're the key point of contact for questions relating to all aspects of the project.
As the project engineer, you're the responsible project manager, mostly in technical projects, for example in product or process development. Depending on the industry, company and type of project, the precise activities may be very different. The main task, however, is managing and providing technical support for the project or part of the project you're responsible for.
As a project engineer, you're responsible for project planning and optimisation and you delegate the associated tasks to the various people involved in the project. For the duration of the project, you monitor the progress of the project and ensure it complies with the relevant specifications, by making sure everything is running according to the customer's schedule and budget, for example. You're also responsible for documenting the progress of the project, regularly generating reports and creating presentations.
Throughout the project, the project manager is a key interface and contact point for customers and employees. They coordinate all activities, are available for enquiries and mediate in case of conflicts.
Hard skills
Soft skills
The work as a project engineer requires a diverse set of skills. To coordinate a project, you need in-depth expertise in your particular discipline, as well as an understanding of all the departments involved in the project. You use various MS Office and calculation software for your planning and documentation, and you draw on extensive knowledge of methodologies.
As a manager, you possess good negotiation and communication skills, but you can assert yourself when the situation calls for it. As the person responsible for a project, you need outstanding organisational skills, initiative and excellent time management skills. For project planning and controlling, it's helpful to have above average mathematical and analytical skills, economic and entrepreneurial thinking as well as a solution-oriented approach to your work.
Project engineers have a lot of responsibility and are often under a lot of pressure with managing deadlines, personnel and unexpected delays and circumstances, which can make project engineer jobs quite challenging. This, combined with their expertise in engineering, means project engineers can command a very good salary. The average project engineer salary is around £40,000. Entry-level positions start around £30-35,000 and experienced project engineers can earn upwards of £50,000.
Salary sources: uk.talent.com, glassdoor.co.uk
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