Job Features

• Welding engineers are involved with a project before welding begins and throughout the entire process. They are concerned with all activity associated with design, production and performance of welding in product manufacturing and in construction, explains the Ohio State University website. Welding engineers work on projects such as buildings, bridges, boilers, machinery and vehicles.
  
  

Starting Salary

• Becoming a welding engineer nearly guarantees a good paycheck, according to Richard Seif, senior vice president of global marketing at Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, Ohio, quoted at the Careers in Welding website, which is affiliated with the American Welding Society. A typical annual starting salary is more than $50,000 a year, Seif advises. The Ferris State University website says graduates of their welding engineering technology bachelor's degree program have average starting salaries of about $62,000 annually.
  
  

Salary Range

• About 24,400 materials engineers were employed in 2008, a much smaller number than most other types of engineers, such as chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineers. The average salary for all materials engineers, including welding engineers, as of 2009 was $41.18 per hour, or $85,660 per year, according to the BLS. The median annual salary, or the rate at which an equal number of all other salaries are lower and an equal number are higher, was $83,190. The middle 50 percent of materials engineers were making $64,950 to $104,170 per year. The top 10 percent had an annual salary of 125,660 or higher, and the bottom 10 percent were making $83,190 or less per year.
  
  

Specifics and Outlook

• The job search website Indeed.com lists about 300 jobs for welding engineers and metallurgists throughout the country in February 2011. Positions are available with well-known companies such as General Electric, John Deere, Siemens Energy and Textron Systems. Posted pay rates generally range from $45,000 to $85,000 per year, although one company offers up to $80 per hour, translating to more than $166,000 per year. The BLS predicts average employment growth for materials engineers from 2008 through 2018. Most new opportunities are likely to be in professional, scientific and technical services industries rather than in manufacturing, according to the BLS.