Do you have a passion for engineering and an interest in transport? If you love finding out how things work and want to spend your working life designing new types of aquatic transport, a marine engineering role could be perfect for you.

Are you interested in working as a marine engineer? Explore the current jobs in the engineering sector available right now.

What is a marine engineer?

Marine engineers design transportation and other forms of aquatic equipment that exist above or below the water. This could be boats, submarines or even drilling equipment for oil rigs. The job combines understanding of both the physics of water and the best engineering methods to suit the water. Here are the responsibilities that you may have as a marine engineer:

Meeting with clients or colleagues to understand their objectives for a project and specifications that they have for the build
Researching existing equipment that fits some of your requirements, so you can learn from this without making unnecessary mistakes
Making designs based on the specifications from the client
Meeting with colleagues and clients to discuss your designs, then making any necessary changes
Testing the designs
Building the designs
Making sure the finished product meets safety standards and client needs

Marine engineer career path

Your career as a marine engineer promises you many opportunities. With experience, you could also move to another type of engineering role if you like the mechanical side of the work but not the maritime aspect. Alternatively, you could go into project management if you like the process but not the engineering. Here is the typical career path associated with marine engineers:

Entry level

You begin your career as a marine engineer in a junior position. Your work involves designing maritime equipment, but it’s checked off by a more senior member of the team. You might help colleagues with their work, completing tasks that they set for you like designing certain aspects of a build or filling out documentation.

Career progression

With enough experience, you can progress to a mid-level marine engineer position. This gives you more freedom to work on your projects, although you might still be expected to discuss your plans and designs with members of the team.

When you’ve demonstrated your skills and have enough experience, you’ll progress to senior marine engineer. Being a senior marine engineer means working on the most complex or high-profile projects in the firm. You can request that junior members of the team help you complete your work, doing the time-consuming or less important parts of the project. You may even oversee the work that junior colleagues do, making sure it’s up to your standards and preventing problems from occurring in their designs.

Future career

If you decide you want to transition into a more management-based role, you could become a maritime engineering manager. This job involves coordinating the team, overseeing their work and making sure it’s up to standard. You might set budgets and make sure the team stays within them. Your work could include speaking to stakeholders to gain their business and understand their requirements for projects.

Marine engineering salaries

As with many engineering jobs, you have the opportunity to earn an above-average salary if you follow a marine engineering career path. Here are the salary levels you could earn as a marine engineer:

In an entry-level marine engineer role, you could earn around £25,500 per year
As a mid-level marine engineer, you could earn on average £48,000 per year
The best-paid senior marine engineers can earn anywhere up to £145,000 per year

Qualifications and training

Having the right education and experience can help you impress a hiring manager and put your CV at the top of the pile. Here are the qualifications and training you need to be a marine engineer:

Education

Many marine engineers have at least an undergraduate degree in a relevant engineering subject like Marine Engineering, Marine Technology or Offshore Engineering. It is possible to have a more general engineering degree and specialise in marine engineering either at master’s level or through internships after completing the degree. Having a master’s degree isn’t often a requirement for working as a marine engineer, but it can give you more specialised knowledge and another year of theoretical understanding which helps with your job performance.

An alternative to having a degree is to look into apprenticeship options. Apprenticeships involve learning through working at an engineering firm, being taught by current employees in the sector. Another option is a combination of studying at university and working at a firm, so a firm employs you and pays for your tuition while you learn about marine engineering in an academic and practical way.

Work experience

Since most people applying for marine engineering roles will have a degree or have been on an apprenticeship scheme, one great way of standing out to a hiring manager is by having relevant work experience. Most engineering degrees include some time in industry, which means you learn by going into an engineering firm and getting involved with the projects they’re working on.

Another way of getting work experience is by doing an internship. You can explore the engineering internships that are currently being advertised by engineering firms. You could also try networking with current employees of the firms you’re interested in. Use our Bright advice for networking to learn the best ways of finding internship opportunities that engineering firms don’t advertise.

Professional qualifications

Within your career as a marine engineer, you can apply for chartered status with the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST). This is the highest professional level that you can achieve as an engineer. It demonstrates that you have great experience and work to a high professional standard. Remember, becoming chartered is a step for experienced marine engineers and is likely not relevant to you until you have five or more years of work under your belt.

Marine engineer skills

Alongside the right education and experience, demonstrating the relevant skills that marine engineers need helps you prove to any hiring manager that you’re perfect for the role. Here are the skills you need to succeed as a marine engineer:

Problem-solving. Your job is to take the requirements that a client has and turn them into reality. You will most likely come across many issues in the design process. This could be making sure the design deals well with poor weather conditions, incorporating safety measures into the design and fitting in all the requirements that a client may have. Being able to think outside the box and solve these problems helps you to do your job to a high level.
Listening and critical thinking. You need to understand the precise requirements that a client has for a design. This helps you incorporate everything, making sure it’s to their standard, and you may even save time by having to make fewer draft designs. Having great listening skills means you understand all the requirements and thinking critically means you understand the requirements that the customer implies but never explicitly mentions.
Creativity and design. Marine engineering is a design job. You need great design skills and creativity to produce designs that are practical, innovative and interesting to look at. You might need to master some forms of design software. This will help you make designs that are highly detailed, easy to share with clients and colleagues and an accurate indicator of how they will look when assembled.

Pros and cons of being a marine engineer

While being a marine engineer has its positive aspects, there are some less positive sides of the role for you to think about. Here are the pros and cons of working as a marine engineer that you should consider before signing up for the career path:

Pros

The work might occasionally involve travel for events or viewing sites like oil rigs. This can be exciting and act as a nice change in your working life.
The salary for marine engineers is quite good and you can work your way up in a firm
You could get onto a great pension scheme
If you love aquatic machinery, working as a marine engineer is a perfect way to combine this interest with engineering

Cons

It can be a stressful job because your designs often involve making sure people are safe. If there were any issues with the safety of your designs, you could be held accountable.
You could work long weeks with intense hours. This could make maintaining a good work–life balance difficult.
If you’re often travelling to work sites, this can increase the length of your working day on a regular basis

Marine engineer work–life balance

Marine engineers often have long working weeks due to big deadlines and a high workload. You may also need to assist with repairs to aquatic machinery that can happen at any time of the day. This means being prepared to give up some downtime if an emergency comes through that you have to deal with.

Your working life is primarily based in an office where you meet with colleagues and clients and make your designs. Part of your job is going to the sites where the equipment you are designing will be based, so you can get a feel for the weather conditions and any specific requirements that could be helpful in that particular location. You may oversee the construction work that your designs undergo in factory settings and the product testing, which means commuting to factories and testing facilities.

Typical employers

You should understand the typical employers in the marine engineer industry so you can explore the opportunities available and the specific requirements that company has. Here are the top engineering and maritime firms that employ marine engineers:

Marine Engineer