Engineering
What you can do with Chemical Engineering
Scale chemistry into industry: fuels, medicines, materials, and the plants that make them.
- Careers
- 4
- Early career
- $85,000
- Mid-career
- $135,000
- Growing fast
- 2 of 4
How these numbers work: A major does not have its own salary. Early and mid-career pay is what people who hold this degree earn at the start of their careers and midway through them. Career pay comes from the 4 careers a Chemical Engineering degree commonly leads to, and counts everyone in those jobs, including people who have been doing them for thirty years. The two answer different questions, which is why they do not match.
48% of people with this degree go on to a graduate degree, so the higher-paying careers below usually mean more school after the bachelor's.
2 of 4 careers this degree leads to are projected to grow faster than average from 2024 to 2034. Of those, Chemist has the most openings, about 6,300 a year.
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4 careers this degree leads to
Petroleum Engineer
$144,910Design the methods that bring oil and gas out of the ground safely and efficiently, one of engineering's highest-paying fields.
- Middle half of workers
- $106,270 to $197,920
- Growth
- Slower than average
- Openings a year
- 1,200
Work-life57Remote67- Reservoir Analysis
- Drilling Engineering
- Mathematics
- Critical Thinking
Chemical Engineer
$125,040Scale chemistry from the lab bench to industrial production, designing the processes behind fuels, plastics, medicines, and materials.
- Middle half of workers
- $97,820 to $157,190
- Growth
- About average
- Openings a year
- 1,100
Work-life55Remote17- Process Design
- Thermodynamics
- Science
- Mathematics
Materials Engineer
$112,860Develop and test the metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites that every other engineering field builds with.
- Middle half of workers
- $88,080 to $142,720
- Growth
- Faster than average
- Openings a year
- 1,500
Work-life55Remote17- Materials Characterization
- Failure Analysis
- Science
- Mathematics
Chemist
$91,240Run the analyses and experiments behind new products, quality control, and scientific discovery.
- Middle half of workers
- $69,460 to $125,550
- Growth
- Faster than average
- Openings a year
- 6,300
Work-life70Remote1- Laboratory Technique
- Analytical Chemistry
- Science
- Critical Thinking
Related majors
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Where these pay figures come from
Early and mid-career pay is the median annual wage of full-time workers who hold a bachelor's degree in that major, ages 22 to 27 and ages 35 to 45, from 2024 data. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (IPUMS). Published as Outcomes by Major by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Career pay is the annual wage of everyone working in that occupation, not only recent graduates, so it includes people who have done the job for decades. The middle half is the 25th to the 75th percentile. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET OnLine (median and percentile annual wages May 2025; employment projections 2024-2034).
All figures are national. What you earn depends on where you work, who you work for, and how far you take the degree.