Skills
37 skills are associated with this occupation.
0 skills selected
Essential knowledge
6 skills
Essential skills / competences
8 skills
Optional knowledge
10 skills
Optional skills / competences
13 skills
Overview
Research engineers use research methods and engineering principles to develop new products or technologies, improve technical processes, and test ideas in offices, laboratories or pilot environments.
In job descriptions, look for experiments, feasibility studies, experimental data, technical requirements, laboratory tests, project management, technical drawings, CAD tools, samples and safety procedures.
Explore this occupation
Open in Job ExplorerWork context
Research engineers usually work in laboratories, engineering offices or pilot environments. They turn research questions into experiments, feasibility studies, technical requirements, samples, drawings and test evidence for new or improved technology.
Skills and specializations
Useful strengths include scientific research methods, engineering principles, experimental data, laboratory tests, technical drawing software, project management and safety procedures. Depending on the field, work may involve materials, batteries, computational mechanics, bioeconomy or advanced manufacturing.
Salary context
Pay context depends on engineering field, experiment complexity, laboratory responsibility, project ownership, prototype risk, documentation demands and whether the role supports research teams or leads development decisions.
Career paths
People may enter from engineering degrees, laboratory testing, product development, industrial research, materials work or technical project support. Development can lead toward R&D engineering, project leadership, specialist research roles, product development or technical architecture.
Good to know
Check whether vacancies name the engineering field, laboratory setup, experiment type, prototype stage and expected outputs. A clear advert separates research support, test execution, design work and project leadership.
Editorial note
This guide gives editorial career context for research engineer work. It is not official labour-market statistics or salary data.
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Alternative labels
Occupation group
application engineer (2149.2)
Source facts
| ESCO URI | http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/3dab5c3f-84d0-4d52-901d-dd262eaea509 |
|---|---|
| ESCO code | 2149.2.8 |
| ISCO group | 2149 |
| Concept type | Occupation |