r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Last-Refrigerator225 • Jul 24 '25
Career Advice ChemE job salary
Hi I am an incoming college student majoring in chemE! I have heard the various streams of chemE jobs, but don't really know their salaries and would like to aim for something early and direct any future internships that way. Also how long does it take to reach six figures and mid six figures?
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25
Chemicals - 90-105k (Dow, BASF)
O&G - anywhere from 80k (very low end) to 130k (high end like shell, exxon, etc)
Biopharmaceuticals - 75-85k
Semiconductors - 85-105k
Consulting - depends on the industry but anywhere from 80-100k+
Software Eng (much harder to get as a Chem E but I had numerous friends with a CS minor go into this) - 90k-120k
It really depends on the industry, position, company, and benefits.
Texas Instruments gave 84k starting 3 years ago and has a 20% profit share where if the company meets their profit margin (they have for the last 10ish years), you get a 20% bonus. That’s 6 figures. They also gave stock options too and a sign on bonus.
Source: I’ve had internships in multiple industries and talk about salary with friends across companies/industries.
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u/NoSurvey1652 Jul 24 '25
Any ballpark figure for the Water & wastewater sector?
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u/ToneSoft3546 Jul 24 '25
one of the lowest from what I’ve heard
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u/NoSurvey1652 Jul 28 '25
if it's lowest in America then its messed up. i thought cause i'm in India there not much pay.
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u/Life-Is-Good27 Jul 24 '25
Normally they only hire civil/environmental engineers. On occasion they’ll higher chemical engineers.
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u/ISleepInPackedBeds Jul 24 '25
I actually got an offer from a water treating design firm because they were specifically trying to add a chemical engineer to their mix, but were also wanting me to pursue an environmental (or civil idk) PE
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u/Life-Is-Good27 Jul 24 '25
I have always wondered why they don’t hire more ChemE’s!
I wanted to get into waste water treatment coming out of school in 2017, but they were only hiring Civils.
I went into oil and gas instead. One of the great things about water treatment is you can live anywhere/nice areas. Oil and Gas will send you to Texas. Every municipality needs water treatment help!
One of the big reasons they higher civils I think is because of the link to public infrastructure/the link between civil engineers and public infrastructure is strong. Civil are also able to do all the design work for the huge basins that hold water (concrete and structural design).
If you pursue the water treatment path, highly recommend take your FE exam right after graduating (get your EIT) and then take the PE exam to get your credentials.
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u/NoSurvey1652 Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25
aah i see i'm a ChemE in the Wastewater treatment sector and all these big MNCs have openings for civil/emvironmental firms only
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25
I do not have one, sorry.
I do know one friend who started in consulting and moved over to the water industry after a couple of years. She told me she got a 20% raise from the company change, but that should be expected any time you change companies for the most part.
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u/ISleepInPackedBeds Jul 24 '25
I had an offer from a water treating design firm out of college and they offered me 77k. This was Oklahoma
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u/FondantSmart7429 Jul 24 '25
Do you have a range for battery technology like in the EV sector?
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25
Most EV companies are based out of California, so that one will depend largely on if you’re working in California versus one of the manufacturing plants around the country.
I worked for Tesla, and their starting pay was around 100k. However, their pay for plants in Austin is lower. Also depended on if you worked as a process engineer or a design engineer, because they’d hire Chemical Engs for both but pay was different.
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u/FondantSmart7429 Jul 24 '25
Did process engineers get payed more than design?
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25
Yes, and that is typically the case in the same company.
But a design company might pay their employees more than a process engineer for a different company in the exact same industry. That’s not common but definitely happens in some nice/niche industries. For example, business consulting almost always pays more than an employee working in the accounting department of any company.
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u/uniballing Jul 24 '25
I started out at an EPC in O&G (downtown Houston) back in 2014 making $76k. If starting salaries kept up with inflation that’d be $104k today.
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
KBR?
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u/uniballing Jul 24 '25
Yup
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u/dlmobs Jul 24 '25
Nice! I got an offer there for 82k last year, so unfortunately salaries have not kept up lol. They are a great group of individuals though. Really liked the people I worked with.
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u/Sea-Specific285 Jul 24 '25
I got out of college in 2024 and joined a public, mid sized upstream O&G company and made 6 fig base. All in all, was more like 140k after bonus + stock in my first year!
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u/Ancient_Educator_510 Jul 25 '25
“Midsize” but “public” and “6 fig base” don’t necessarily align. Just because it’s not Exxon, I wouldn’t sell it short as “midsized”. Was it Houston area?
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u/Sea-Specific285 Jul 29 '25
I agree. It is no small company. Just much bigger fish out there. Not Houston, which was a plus for me.
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u/JackZ4 Jul 24 '25
What’s your goal? If you want to earn the most money, this is the right question. From what I see all of the salaries listed should make it so you can live comfortably. But, I have had different types of ChE jobs. They all offer different benefits. Plant jobs get you away from your desk and talking to people at all levels of the organization. Design companies give you the chance to get in on designs but you will see a lot of your desk. Corporate support jobs give you the opportunity to travel. These all offer different levels of choice about where you can live to have the job.
TL;DR. I suggest considering more than just the salary. Almost any ChE job offers life security. But there are other factors about the jobs that might be important to your life.
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Jul 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/Hot-Manner9388 Jul 24 '25
Can I dm you? I am in Houston, working as a Process Safety Consultant and looking for a new opportunity.
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u/Flimsy_Yam_2930 Jul 24 '25
I see a lot of good responses here, but I’ll just add my position as it is different than the other comments. Currently at 79k with 1 yoe in composite material manufacturing for aerospace. Colleague of mine began making 100k after about 4-5 years.
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u/Black_Scythe-64 Jul 24 '25
I too am an undergraduate in chemical & electrochemical engineering. What salary should I expect when I finish my clg? Should I go for pHD? But it takes 5 yrs and I want to support my parents financially after clg. I don't know what to do..
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u/TheAmericanEngineer Jul 24 '25
O&G, specialty chemicals, energy, and mineral consulting (small firm) making $102k when I was just out of college
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u/NoDimension5134 Jul 25 '25
Started at O&G major 15 years ago in a Houston refinery making low 6 figs to start. 15 years in salary has more than doubled; moved into upstream recently and got a pay bump from that, upstream tends to pay more but you work in more remote areas.
I think most start out close to 120K now at the place I started. Not including benefits
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u/EmergencyAnything715 Jul 24 '25
Started O&G in 2015 at $103k. New hire salaries definitely not kept up with inflation
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u/MuddyflyWatersman 21d ago edited 21d ago
starting about 80-90k. after 40 years, you can expect 3 x that in real $, maybe about 200-240k
.
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u/ISleepInPackedBeds Jul 24 '25
Depends on where you’re at and what industry. I am O&G in Oklahoma, hit 6 figures about a month before year 2. If you work at a refinery you can get that as a starting figure. There’s a salary survey that someone here will link that can give an empirical view on the subject