Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary

Salary Overview

Job Outlook (2024–2034)

Key Skills

Knowledge Areas

What They Do

• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, assignments, and papers.
• Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate class discussions.
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.

Tools & Technology

★ = Hot Technology (in-demand)

Education Requirements

Typical entry-level education: Related Work Experience

Related Careers

Featured In

Careers with the highest skill compatibility from Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary.

A Day in the Life

A typical day for an engineering professor varies significantly depending on whether classes are in session, but generally involves a blend of teaching, research, and service responsibilities. Morning hours might be spent preparing lectures, updating lab exercises, or grading student assignments and exams in their office or campus workspace. Classroom time involves delivering lectures that balance theoretical fundamentals with practical applications, often incorporating real-world case studies and industry examples to engage students. Laboratory sessions require hands-on supervision as students conduct experiments in materials testing, circuit design, fluid mechanics, or computer-aided design environments. Research occupies a substantial portion of the week, including writing grant proposals, supervising graduate student projects, analyzing experimental data, and preparing manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals. Committee meetings for curriculum development, faculty governance, accreditation preparation, and student admissions consume several hours per week during the academic year. Office hours provide designated time for student consultations, where professors address conceptual questions, advise on academic planning, or mentor undergraduate research projects. Industry engagement activities such as consulting, conference presentations, and professional society leadership round out the day, connecting academic work to real-world engineering practice.

Work Environment

Engineering professors work across multiple campus environments including private offices, classrooms, teaching laboratories, and research facilities. University campuses provide collegial intellectual communities with access to libraries, interdisciplinary collaborators, and shared research infrastructure. Teaching loads typically range from two to four courses per semester, with research-intensive universities generally assigning lighter teaching responsibilities to support scholarly activity. The academic calendar provides structured variation, with intensive teaching periods during fall and spring semesters balanced by summer months devoted primarily to research, writing, and course development. Most professors enjoy significant flexibility in scheduling their non-teaching hours, choosing when and where to conduct research, write papers, and hold meetings. Conference travel to present research findings, network with peers, and recruit graduate students is a regular part of the academic lifestyle, typically involving several domestic and international trips per year. The culture values intellectual curiosity, rigorous analysis, and collegial debate while also carrying pressures around publication productivity, grant funding, and student evaluations. Research laboratories may contain specialized equipment ranging from electron microscopes to wind tunnels, creating varied physical environments beyond the traditional classroom.

Career Path & Advancement

The standard pathway to becoming a postsecondary engineering teacher at a research university requires a doctoral degree in an engineering discipline, which typically takes four to six years beyond the bachelor's degree. Postdoctoral research positions lasting one to three years are increasingly common before securing a tenure-track assistant professor appointment. Teaching-focused institutions such as community colleges and some four-year schools may hire instructors with a master's degree and significant industry experience. The tenure track progression moves from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure, and ultimately to full professor, with each promotion bringing increased salary, academic freedom, and institutional standing. Department chair, associate dean, and dean positions represent administrative advancement paths for faculty interested in academic leadership beyond the $106,120 median salary. Endowed professorships and distinguished faculty appointments recognize exceptional research and teaching contributions with substantial salary supplements and reduced teaching loads. Some engineering professors maintain active consulting practices or spin off startup companies based on their research, creating parallel income streams and industry impact.

Specializations

Mechanical engineering professors may specialize in areas ranging from robotics and mechatronics to thermal sciences and manufacturing processes, often building research programs around specific industry challenges. Civil and structural engineering faculty focus on infrastructure design, geotechnical engineering, transportation systems, or environmental engineering, frequently conducting research tied to regional development needs. Electrical and computer engineering professors specialize in diverse areas including semiconductor devices, signal processing, embedded systems, power electronics, or telecommunications. Chemical engineering faculty may focus on process design, catalysis, polymer science, or emerging fields like bioprocessing and nanomaterials synthesis. Biomedical engineering professors work at the intersection of medicine and engineering, specializing in tissue engineering, medical device design, biomechanics, or medical imaging. Aerospace engineering faculty conduct research in aerodynamics, propulsion, spacecraft design, or unmanned aerial systems, often collaborating with defense and space agencies. Engineering education itself has emerged as a specialization, with professors studying how students learn engineering concepts and developing evidence-based pedagogical approaches.

Pros & Cons

Industry Insight

Engineering education is undergoing significant pedagogical transformation, with active learning, project-based curricula, and experiential design courses replacing traditional lecture-only formats. ABET accreditation requirements have shifted emphasis from prescriptive course content to measurable student outcomes, requiring faculty to engage more systematically with assessment and continuous improvement. Online and hybrid course delivery, accelerated by pandemic-era necessity, has become a permanent feature of engineering education, requiring professors to develop digital teaching competencies. Interdisciplinary programs combining engineering with data science, business, sustainability, or healthcare are proliferating, creating opportunities for faculty who can bridge traditional disciplinary boundaries. Research funding landscapes are evolving, with increasing emphasis on convergent research that addresses grand societal challenges like climate, health, and equity rather than purely disciplinary investigations. The demographic composition of engineering faculty is slowly diversifying, with institutions actively pursuing initiatives to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities and women in professorial roles. Industry partnerships for sponsored research, co-op programs, and advisory board engagement are deepening, blurring the boundary between academic and industrial engineering practice.