Engineering
Automotive Engineers
Develop new or improved designs for vehicle structural members, engines, transmissions, or other vehicle systems, using computer-assisted design technology. Direct building, modification, or testing of vehicle or components.
Median salary
$102,320
Typical range
$69k – $161k
Job outlook
+9% (faster than average)
AI exposure
Plan a path to Automotive Engineers
Education
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
Plan my path to this →Typical progression
Automotive Engineers Intern
Internship
$36,000
~4 mos to advance
Junior Automotive Engineers
Entry / Junior
$68,740
~2 yrs to advance
Automotive Engineers
Established
$102,320
~3 yrs to advance
Senior Automotive Engineers
Senior
$131,780
Internships are a common on-ramp here — they speed up landing that first role and improve your odds, which is why the Safe and High-ceiling plans build one in.
Key skills
A typical day
- •Conduct or direct system-level automotive testing.
- •Provide technical direction to other engineers or engineering support personnel.
- •Perform failure, variation, or root cause analyses.
- •Calibrate vehicle systems, including control algorithms or other software systems.
- •Design or analyze automobile systems in areas such as aerodynamics, alternate fuels, ergonomics, hybrid power, brakes, transmissions, steering, calibration, safety, or diagnostics.
Fields of study
Any field
Top colleges for Engineering
Explore all- Massachusetts Institute of Technology4% admit · $124,000 grad pay
- Stanford University4% admit · $122,000 grad pay
- University of California, Berkeley11% admit · $97,000 grad pay
- Georgia Institute of Technology16% admit · $99,000 grad pay
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign45% admit · $80,000 grad pay
Reputation-based selection; stats shown are outcome data per school.