01 — MethodologyHow to read these numbersStart with the fact that shapes every number here: there is no BLS occupation code for construction engineer. The federal Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program has no line for the title, so the construction engineer salary has to be triangulated from the two series employers actually report the role into. Degreed engineers on the contractor side are coded as SOC 17-2051, Civil Engineers — a $100,840 median in BLS OEWS May 2025, with percentiles from $68,240 at the 10th to $163,220 at the 90th across roughly 367,840 jobs. Construction engineers who carry schedule, cost, and crew authority get coded as SOC 11-9021, Construction Managers: a $114,990 median, $69,690 to $189,440 from 10th to 90th, and industry cuts of $126,690 in nonresidential building construction (NAICS 2362) and $124,430 in heavy and civil engineering construction (NAICS 237) — the same May 2025 figures that anchor our construction project manager salary guide.Neither code can see the ladder. Field engineer, project engineer, construction engineer, and senior construction engineer all collapse into one median, so rung-level figures come from posting aggregators, each labeled with its own vintage: ZipRecruiter national pages (April to July 2026 vintages), Salary.com benchmarks effective September 1, 2026, Indeed posting averages updated September 6, 2026, Glassdoor and PayScale where noted — all retrieved September 15, 2026. Sector premiums draw on Axe Recruiting’s August 2026 construction compensation benchmarks, DC Geeks’ 2026 data center pay bands built from DPR, Turner, and Holder postings, and live employer job boards read on September 15, 2026, including SpaceX’s Greenhouse board for launch and manufacturing-site construction engineering.Payroll and posting data will not agree, and the gap is informative. The civil-engineer payroll median runs about $12,000 above ZipRecruiter’s posted construction-engineer average because OEWS counts every incumbent, including twenty-year engineers, while postings sample open mid-level seats. Salary.com’s benchmark for the same title sits $13,500 above ZipRecruiter’s, from different title-matching rules on the same market. Where sources disagree we show both and say who says what.What these figures are — and are notFigures as of September 2026. These are public-market benchmarks, not iRecruit placement data and not an offer range: the BLS series blend construction engineers with design-office civil engineers and with general construction managers, and aggregator numbers are scraped from postings and self-reports that swing with title-string matching. Use them to frame a compensation conversation, then price your own market, sector, and project scale.02 — At a glanceThe benchmarks at a glanceThe whole guide in one screen. Each row jumps to the full section.01Construction field engineer$70,911 ZipRecruiter average (June 2026 vintage), middle band $50,000–$85,000, 90th percentile $102,500; Salary.com $75,517; Indeed field engineer $85,692 plus $10,125 overtime$71–83K02Construction project engineer$80,698 ZipRecruiter average (July 2026 vintage), middle band $69,000–$88,500; Salary.com $86,042; Glassdoor $105,118 total pay$81–86K03Construction engineer$88,563 ZipRecruiter average (June 2026), 25th–75th $72,000–$103,500; Indeed $94,547 from 1.3k postings; Salary.com $102,103; BLS civil-engineer median $100,840$89–102K04Senior construction engineer$126,557 ZipRecruiter average (April 2026), middle band $104,500–$143,500, 90th percentile $168,000; Salary.com $104,865; BLS construction-manager median $114,990$105–127K05Mission-critical premium+10–20% at every rung for data center, industrial, and healthcare experience per Axe Recruiting (August 2026); SpaceX posts construction engineers at $100,000–$130,000 with Level 2 to $160,000 and Sr. Construction Engineer postings at $135,000–$190,000+10–20%Anchor numbers for 2026: the payroll median for the civil-engineer series is $100,840 and for the construction-manager series $114,990; the posted ladder runs roughly $71K to $127K from field engineer to senior construction engineer on ZipRecruiter averages; and mission-critical work adds 10–20% at every rung, which is how a construction engineer on a fab or hyperscale program prices off the BLS 75th percentiles of $129,680 and $151,640 rather than the medians.
03 — BenchmarksThe construction engineer pay ladder in 2026Two federal series set the floor and the ceiling; posting data names the rungs between them. Each band below carries its publisher and vintage, because on this title the divergence between payroll and posting sources is wider than on almost any other construction role.$70,911Construction field engineer, posted averageZipRecruiter’s national average at the June 2026 vintage, with a $50,000–$85,000 middle band and $102,500 at the 90th percentile. Salary.com’s September 2026 benchmark is $75,517 ($67,376–$78,980), and Indeed’s broader field engineer average is $85,692 plus $10,125 in overtime across 4k postings. The entry rung for field engineer seats that GCs backfill every spring.$80,698Construction project engineer, posted averageZipRecruiter’s July 2026 average at $38.80/hr, middle band $69,000–$88,500, 90th percentile $104,000. Salary.com reads Project Engineer I - Construction at $86,042 ($77,817–$92,450) and Comparably at $83,321 in September 2026, while Glassdoor’s total-pay estimate of $105,118 includes bonus and overtime. Project engineer is where submittals, RFIs, and cost tracking become the job.$88,563Construction engineer, posted averageZipRecruiter’s June 2026 average at $42.58/hr, 25th–75th band $72,000–$103,500, 90th percentile $122,000. Indeed’s September 2026 average from 1.3k postings is $94,547 (range $61,062–$146,395); Salary.com’s benchmark is $102,103 ($93,633–$112,508); PayScale’s self-reported average is $83,408. Four readings of one title, $19K apart.$100,840Civil engineers, federal payroll medianBLS OEWS May 2025 median for SOC 17-2051, the code most degreed construction engineers are reported under. The 25th–75th band runs $79,930–$129,680 and the 90th percentile is $163,220. BLS projects 6% growth for the series over 2025–35 with about 22,700 openings a year.$126,557Senior construction engineer, posted averageZipRecruiter’s April 2026 average at $60.84/hr, middle band $104,500–$143,500, 90th percentile $168,000. Salary.com’s September 2026 benchmark for the same title is a much flatter $104,865 ($96,718–$113,290) — the aggregators disagree by $22K on where senior scope starts paying.$114,990Construction managers, federal payroll medianBLS OEWS May 2025 median for SOC 11-9021 at $55.28/hr, the code a senior construction engineer with site authority is coded into. Nonresidential building construction pays a $126,690 median and heavy and civil construction $124,430; the 75th percentile is $151,640. Our construction PM salary guide unpacks the series in full.Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates for SOC 17-2051 and 11-9021 (percentiles and industry cuts via O*NET OnLine and the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook); BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-35 projections; ZipRecruiter national salary pages at April-July 2026 vintages, Salary.com benchmarks effective September 1, 2026, Indeed averages updated September 6, 2026, PayScale profiles updated February 2026, all retrieved September 15, 2026.Why four sources read one title $19,000 apartThree mechanical reasons. First, the title is genuinely unstable: at one GC a construction engineer is a second-year field engineer, at another it is a licensed PE running a $200M scope, and aggregators average both. Second, OEWS is built from employer payroll across every incumbent, so long-tenured engineers pull the civil-engineer median to $100,840, while ZipRecruiter’s $88,563 samples only open seats, which skew mid-level. Third, Salary.com’s $102,103 and PayScale’s $83,408 describe the same market with different matching rules and different respondents. The honest read: a working construction engineer market in 2026 clears roughly $85K–$105K nationally, with everything above that explained by seniority, sector, and license. 04 — Cost driversWhat moves a construction engineer off the medianTitle explains less than half the spread. Sector, license, site authority, travel structure, and employer type each carry a priced premium — and on reindustrialization programs they compound.+10–20%Data center and industrial project experienceAxe Recruiting’s August 2026 benchmarks put data-center, industrial, and healthcare project experience at a 10–20% lift at every level, with heavy-civil fluency worth the same. DC Geeks’ 2026 bands from DPR, Turner, and Holder postings price a data center field engineer at $68,000–$85,000 base and $72,000–$95,000 total, against ZipRecruiter’s $70,911 generalist average — see our data center construction desk.$150K+Semiconductor fab constructionConstruction Placements’ 2026 fab-construction bands, built from Arizona, Texas, Ohio, and New York market data, put civil and structural engineers at $80,000 entry, $110,000 mid-level, and $150,000-plus senior or lead — a compressed schedule and vibration-isolated slabs price like specialist work. The senior figure sits $23K above ZipRecruiter’s senior construction engineer average.$130KLaunch and space-manufacturing sitesSpaceX’s Greenhouse board, read September 15, 2026, posts Construction Engineer and Construction Project Engineer (MEP) at $100,000–$130,000 base in Hawthorne with a Level 2 tier at $115,000–$160,000 and separate Sr. Construction Engineer and Sr. Construction Project Engineer postings at $135,000–$190,000; the Starbase and Cape Canaveral civil-engineer and launch-pad postings carry no published range. That base band alone clears ZipRecruiter’s construction engineer 75th percentile of $103,500.$105–140KPE licenseDavron’s February 2026 construction and engineering pay outlook puts licensed PEs at $105,000–$140,000-plus against a civil-engineer median it reads near $96,000. On the BLS distribution, that is the difference between the 17-2051 median ($100,840) and its 75th percentile ($129,680) — the license moves a construction engineer a full quartile, and it is the gate to signing off temporary works.$178/dayTravel and per diem structureGSA’s FY2026 standard CONUS per diem is $178 a day ($110 lodging plus $68 meals and incidentals); Axe Recruiting reads $100–$180 a day as typical on away work and DC Geeks $150–$250 on rural sites, with rotation schedules and completion bonuses on megaprojects. DC Geeks estimates overtime, bonus, and per diem add 20–40% on top of posted base.1.6xSite authority and the senior rungZipRecruiter’s senior construction engineer average ($126,557) runs about 1.8x its field engineer average ($70,911) and 1.6x its construction project engineer average ($80,698). The multiplier is scope: senior postings describe self-perform crews, temporary-works sign-off, and cost ownership, which is why BLS codes that rung as a construction manager at a $114,990 median rather than a civil engineer at $100,840.Stack the premiums and the ladder makes sense: a PE-licensed senior construction engineer on a data center or fab program, deployed with per diem, is priced off the BLS 75th–90th bands of $129,680–$163,220 (civil engineers) or $151,640–$189,440 (construction managers), not the medians — while an unlicensed construction engineer on commercial tenant work in the same metro sits a full quartile lower on identical years. Benchmark a mission-critical seat off the $88,563 posted average and the search stalls in the first phone screen. 05 — VariationWhere construction engineers earn the mostState medians below are BLS OEWS May 2025 for the civil-engineer series, via O*NET OnLine — payroll data, not postings. The pattern is coastal wage leadership with a second, faster-moving premium forming in the fab and data center corridors where posted rates now run ahead of the federal medians.California$122,500Highest state median among the major markets, with the 90th percentile at $175,940. Indeed’s construction engineer average confirms the coastal lift with Los Alamos at $115,416 and New York City at $113,774 among its top-paying cities as of September 2026.Washington and New York$104K–$110KWashington $110,000 (90th percentile $160,670) and New York $103,760 (90th $169,050) on the civil-engineer series. Semiconductor, hyperscale, and union high-rise work underwrite the bands.Texas$96,860Civil-engineer median $96,860 with a $164,330 90th percentile — the widest spread of any state listed, driven by launch-site, fab, LNG, and data center programs pulling senior engineers well past the median while volume keeps the midpoint down.Ohio and Arizona fab corridors$90K–$96KOhio $96,220 and Arizona $89,660 on the payroll medians — but fab-construction bands for the same corridors run $110,000 mid-level to $150,000-plus senior (Construction Placements, 2026), the widest payroll-to-posting gap on the map.Posted city leaders$95K–$115KIndeed’s September 2026 construction engineer averages: Los Alamos $115,416, New York $113,774, Denver $98,523, Chicago $95,085, Indianapolis $89,172 — national laboratory, high-rise, and logistics-industrial work in that order.National band$68K–$163KBLS OEWS May 2025 for civil engineers 17-2051: 10th $68,240, 25th $79,930, median $100,840, 75th $129,680, 90th $163,220. Field engineers fill the bottom quartile; PE-licensed senior construction engineers on mission-critical work the top decile.Geography is losing explanatory power at the top of the market. A senior construction engineer with hyperscale or fab delivery history prices nationally — the Phoenix, Columbus, and central Texas corridors now bid against coastal packages for the same short list — while the bottom half of the distribution still prices locally. The practical effect: state medians predict field and project engineer offers well, and mission-critical senior offers barely at all. 06 — TrendMission-critical demand is repricing the ladderThe demand side is lopsided and that lopsidedness is the story. US Census Bureau July 2026 construction spending put total construction at a $2,157.6 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate, down 3.8% year over year, with private manufacturing construction at $167.8 billion — off 21.7% from July 2025’s $214.4 billion as the gigafactory and fab wave rolled off — while private power held at $161.5 billion, up 6.5%. Data center construction, reported inside the office line, reached roughly $75.2 billion annualized, up 57% year over year; ABC’s read of the same release found the month’s entire nonresidential gain came from data centers.Supply is not keeping pace where the money is. BLS projects civil-engineer employment growing 6% over 2025–35, about 22,700 openings a year, and construction managers 9% with 49,700 a year, most from replacement. The AGC 2025 Workforce Survey found 92% of firms struggling to fill salaried positions, with project managers and supervisors hard to fill at 76% of firms seeking them — and the field and project engineers who become those managers are the pipeline tier Axe Recruiting calls “worth overpaying slightly to secure.”The result is a two-tier market inside one title. Posted data center senior PM bases have reached $165,000–$185,000 in Dallas and Atlanta (Amundson Group, August 2026) and data center PM bases near $150,250 in our own tracking, pulling the senior construction engineer rung beneath them up with it, while the generalist construction engineer average sits near $88,563. Expect the civil-engineer series, which lags postings by design, to keep printing outsized moves at the 75th and 90th percentiles through the May 2026 and May 2027 releases. 07 — WorkforceReading these numbers before you write an offerBenchmark against the rung and the sector, not the occupation code. A field engineer offer belongs against the $50K–$85K ZipRecruiter band; a project engineer against $69K–$89K; a generalist construction engineer against $72K–$104K; a senior construction engineer with site authority against $105K–$144K; and anything on a data center, fab, or launch-site program against the sector bands, not the national median. Budgeting a fab construction engineer off the $100,840 civil-engineer midpoint is how searches stall for two quarters — the same failure mode we document for superintendents.The screening questions matter more than the survey picks. What did the candidate personally deliver — program dollars, sector, self-perform or subcontracted scope, PE or EIT in hand, willingness to deploy — determines which band they price in, and the spread between adjacent answers is $20K–$50K. iRecruit is building candidate density across the full ladder, field engineer through senior construction engineer and into civil and structural engineering, in the mission-critical sectors where this repricing is sharpest; the benchmarks above are where our shortlist conversations start, whether through embedded recruiting support or a single search.For the hiring side of this market, see the Mission-Critical Construction practice. 08 — FAQFrequently asked questions How much does a construction engineer make in 2026?+There is no BLS code for the title, so the payroll spine is the civil-engineer median of $100,840 (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 17-2051) and, for senior engineers with site authority, the construction-manager median of $114,990 (SOC 11-9021). Posted averages run $88,563 on ZipRecruiter (June 2026), $94,547 on Indeed (September 2026), and $102,103 on Salary.com. A working national range is roughly $85K–$105K before sector, license, and scope premiums.What does a construction field engineer earn?+ZipRecruiter’s June 2026 national average is $70,911, with most salaries between $50,000 and $85,000 and the 90th percentile at $102,500. Salary.com benchmarks the title at $75,517 and Indeed’s broader field engineer average is $85,692 plus about $10,125 in overtime. Data center field engineer postings from DPR, Turner, and Holder run $68,000–$85,000 base per DC Geeks’ 2026 bands.How much does a construction project engineer make?+ZipRecruiter’s July 2026 average is $80,698 with a middle band of $69,000–$88,500; Salary.com reads $86,042 and Comparably $83,321 in September 2026. Glassdoor’s $105,118 is a total-pay figure that folds in bonus and overtime, which is why it runs $20K above the base-pay aggregators.Can a construction engineer make $150K or more?+Yes — $163,220 is the BLS 90th percentile for civil engineers and $151,640 the 75th percentile for construction managers, so the top of both payroll distributions already clears it. The reliable routes are senior scope (ZipRecruiter senior construction engineer 90th percentile $168,000), a PE license ($105,000–$140,000-plus per Davron), and mission-critical sectors — fab-construction senior bands at $150,000-plus and SpaceX’s Sr. Construction Engineer postings at $135,000–$190,000.Is a construction engineer paid more than a civil engineer?+On the payroll data they are the same people: BLS codes most degreed construction engineers into the civil-engineer series at a $100,840 median. The split shows up in postings — a design-office civil engineer prices off the 17-2051 distribution, while a construction engineer with crew and cost authority is coded as a construction manager at a $114,990 median with a $151,640 75th percentile. Field exposure, travel, and site authority are what buy the difference, not the degree. Price the rung, then fill itHiring field engineers, project engineers, or senior construction engineers? iRecruit is assembling candidate density across the full construction engineering ladder in data center, semiconductor, launch-site, and heavy-civil work. Tell us the program and we’ll shortlist.Scope a search →Candidates — register with us →
