Salaries for development engineers: A primer

Despite the seeming demotion, Ugandan industrial engineer Juliet Nankinga left a local supervisory post in 2008 to work as a mechanic for the World Food Program. The career move was strategic in many ways for the 29-year-old. Apart from gaining field experience and exposure in an international organization, Nankinga earns almost double for getting down and dirty in overalls than for calling the shots as a field supervisor. The pay hike: from $4,000 a year as an operations engineer to $7,000 as a mechanic. Nankinga’s story illustrates how tricky it is to anticipate an engineer’s salary. Experts and recruiters say there is no single international salary standard in the realm of development engineering. Employers typically consider at least three variables in determining an engineer’s pay: experience and position level, location, and funding. Experience and position level Not surprisingly, engineers with higher qualifications usually get more. “I can’t even give you a range,” said Glenda Pitt, recruitment manager at Australia-based consulting firm Cardno Acil. “It’s based on a person’s skills, past earnings.” Sheikh Javed Ahmed, a water and environmental engineer based in Canada, said mid- and senior-level engineers take home between $66,000 and $90,000. “I have been working in Canada since 2005, and the compensation levels here depend on the level of your professional registration and relevant experience,” he said. Experience makes thousands of dollars of difference for engineers. For instance, Taiwanese Peter Sun, a transportation engineer of more than 20 years, earns around $6,000 a month, while Nigerian Idowu Yusuf, a recent agricultural and environmental engineering graduate, was offered a monthly pay of $250 in his first job. Location Location also determines the pay offer as employers consider an engineer’s country of residence and cost of living in a given location. “Compensation depends on their country of residence and the average wage in each country,” said a Manila-based senior engineering consultant who declined to be named. “It’s not a hard-and-fast rule. It’s just that … we don’t enforce any rates.” In her firm – an international consultancy that works on engineering projects of multilateral and bilateral institutions – engineers’ pay is computed based on typical salary rates in a given project location. In general, however, engineers in developing countries earn less than those who work in developed nations. The same applies to engineers from developed countries who work in less-developed nations, as in most cases of development assistance projects. International engineers placed on overseas assignments normally earn more than engineers hired locally for the same project. Funding and benefits The payroll is also gauged on available funding, the Manila-based consultant said. “When a loan project comes out, the agency sets the rate,” she revealed. “Then the [partner] government department, they would set the rate, and we have to comply with that rate.” Regardless of pay scales, benefits are more or less fixed in the industry, with more perks offered to engineers as they gain more experience. Engineers sent to conflict areas – locations of major infrastructure projects of international aid and loan agencies – are given a separate premium for the risk that comes with the job. This add-on also depends on the hiring firm and funding agency. “They [engineers] get paid a premium,” said the Manila consultant, whose company works mostly around the Asia-Pacific region. “If they work in conflict areas, there are monetary packages.” On top of monetary recompense, firms provide security briefings to their engineers before deployment. “In our consultancy, they go into a security briefing before they mobilize to make sure they understand what is going on in that environment,” Cardno Acil’s Pitt said. “We also go through cultural sensitivity briefs as well.” As in other industries, benefits in major engineering firms and consultancies may include transportation and food allowances, health and accident insurance, tuition reimbursements, and paid leaves. Engineers could get more with an impressive job performance. “If you get hired, excel in your performance,” said Miguel Roca, who leads a U.S.-funded highway construction project in El Salvador. “If you do, they will want to take you with them to new projects, even if that means relocating you and taking along your whole family and even your pet.” Read more engineering stories: - Engineering Jobs in International Development: What You Need You Know - Engineering CVs: Keep it Recent and Relevant - The Ideal Development Engineer: A Character Sketch - International Engineering Jobs: Opportunities and Challenges - Development Engineering: Volunteer Toward Employment - Top Engineering Schools: A Primer - Engineers Without Borders: From US to India and Beyond - Top International Development Engineering Firms: A Primer - For Engineers, Working Across Cultures is Key Read more career advice articles.