Chemical Engineer Career Assessment

2What is a Chemical Engineer?

A chemical engineer takes a chemical reaction that works in a small glass beaker and figures out how to run it in a tank the size of a house, safely, over and over, every day. They design the tanks, pipes, pumps, and heaters. They set the temperature and pressure. They write the steps operators follow. They also run tests, hunt down problems when a unit will not make good product, and look for ways to waste less energy and material. A process is the whole chain of steps from raw material to product. That chain is the chemical engineer's main job.

The Reality: Be clear-eyed about this one. It is a four-year college degree, and it is one of the heaviest math and chemistry degrees there is. You take calculus 1, 2, and 3, differential equations, physics with calculus, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry. Then you take thermodynamics and fluid mechanics on top of that. Nobody skips those classes. Many students take a fifth year. North Dakota is also a small market: O*NET counts only about 70 chemical engineers in the whole state, and the state projection shows about 0 openings a year. Most graduates find work by being willing to move, or by moving into a related plant job. If math and chemistry scare you, take one college chemistry class and one college math class first and find out how you really do before you spend four years.

Your Responsibilities:

• Design the tanks, pipes, pumps, and heat equipment a plant needs
• Set the temperature, pressure, and flow a process runs at
• Write the step-by-step procedures plant operators follow
• Run tests and math checks to see if a new process will work
• Find out why a unit is making bad product and fix it
• Look for ways to use less energy, water, and raw material
• Make sure the plant follows safety and environmental laws
• Estimate what a project will cost and how long it will take

You make a plant turn raw material into product safely and without waste.

3A Day in the Life

7:00 AM — Safety meeting with the plant crew. Go over yesterday's near-miss report.

7:30 AM — Pull up last night's process data on the computer. One unit ran hotter than it should.

9:00 AM — Put on a hard hat and walk the unit with an operator. Look at the heat exchanger.

10:30 AM — Run the math on the heat exchanger. It is fouled up inside and needs cleaning.

12:00 PM — Lunch.

12:45 PM — Meeting about a project to cut steam use in the plant.

2:30 PM — Write up a change to the operating procedure and route it for review.

4:30 PM — Answer lab questions about a product sample, then plan tomorrow.

A mix of computer work, plant floor walks, and meetings with operators and other engineers.

4Training in North Dakota

This job needs a four-year chemical engineering degree. There is no short route to the engineer title. You need a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Pick an ABET accredited program if you possibly can. ABET is a national group that reviews engineering degrees. An ABET degree makes getting licensed much faster later. You can start at a North Dakota two-year college to save money and then transfer.

Training Pathways:

• Straight to the university (4 to 5 years): Start at UND as a chemical engineering major. UND has an ABET accredited chemical engineering degree, on campus or online.
• Two years here, then transfer (4 to 5 years total): Take your math and chemistry at a North Dakota two-year college, then finish the bachelor's degree. Bismarck State College has a chemical pathway built for exactly this.
• Two-year plant operator route (2 years, different job): If the four-year degree is not for you, a process plant operator degree puts you inside the same plants, running the equipment the engineers design. It is a good job and much less math. It is a different job title, not the engineer title.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Chemical Engineering, BS, 130 credits, 4 to 5 years, on campus or online. UND lists Chemical Engineering (B.S.) as accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET — engineering.und.edu/about/accreditation.html and und.edu/programs/chemical-engineering-bs
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Liberal Arts Engineering Pathway, AS, with a Chemical Pathway option. BSC says students who graduate, finish the recommended coursework, and earn the AS will likely meet junior standing when they transfer into engineering at UND or NDSU — catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees/liberal-arts-sciences-transfer/engineering
• United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck) — Pre-Engineering, AS. UTTC says the degree is designed for transfer into an ABET accredited bachelor's program at schools like UND, NDSU, South Dakota School of Mines, and Navajo Technical University — uttc.edu/academics/programs/pre-engineering

Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. You must be ready for college math. Take all the high school math you can get: algebra 2, trigonometry, and pre-calculus. Take chemistry and physics too. If your math is rusty, take a placement test early and plan for a catch-up class before you start.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

5Certification & Licensing

Most chemical engineers work without a license. You need one to stamp designs or to run your own firm. The North Dakota State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors licenses engineers in this state. In plant work, many chemical engineers never get licensed, because a company engineer signing off inside their own plant usually does not need a stamp. A stamp is an official mark that says "I am responsible for this design." Getting licensed anyway opens doors to consulting work and to running your own firm.

The License Ladder in North Dakota:

• Bachelor's degree first — North Dakota bases registration on the bachelor's degree (ndpelsboard.org)
• FE exam — the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, given by NCEES. Most people take it in their last year of college or right after. There is a Chemical version of the exam (ncees.org)
• Engineer Intern (EI, also called EIT) — after you pass the FE exam. With an ABET accredited engineering degree the ND board asks for no work experience for this step (ndpelsboard.org)
• Work experience — with an ABET accredited engineering degree, 4 years after the degree. A non-ABET or technology degree takes longer (ndpelsboard.org)
• PE exam — the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam. NCEES says it is designed for engineers with at least four years of work after college, and a Chemical version is offered (ncees.org)
• Professional Engineer (PE) — the full license. You send in references from licensed engineers who know your work. Now you can stamp designs (ndpelsboard.org)

The Exams: The FE exam has 110 questions. The appointment is 6 hours, with 5 hours and 20 minutes of test time. It is taken on a computer at a Pearson test center and is offered year-round. The PE exam is also on a computer. You get one try per testing window and no more than three tries in 12 months (ncees.org).

Cost: NCEES lists the FE exam fee at $225 and the PE exam fee at $425. The ND board charges its own application fees on top of that, so call the board for current amounts. Your degree is the big cost, not the exams.

Keeping It Current: ND personal licenses run on a two-year cycle. The board asks for 30 Professional Development Hours every two years. Twenty of the 30 must be technical and one must be in ethics (ndpelsboard.org).

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Chemical Engineer Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $22.00–$40.73/hour ($45,760–$84,720/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $55.48/hour ($115,400/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $64.72–$78.15/hour ($134,630–$162,560/year)

What that means: North Dakota numbers were published for chemical engineers, so these are real ND figures. The middle ND chemical engineer earns about $55.48 an hour, or about $115,400 a year. Read the bottom number carefully: the ND 10th percentile of $22.00 an hour is far below the national 10th percentile of $38.19. With only about 70 chemical engineers counted in the whole state, a small survey sample can be pulled around by a handful of interns, part-year workers, or people working under a different title. Do not plan on $22 and do not plan on $78. The middle of the range is the honest picture. Pay at refineries and gas plants also moves with oil and gas prices.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 70 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 80 (about 10% growth). Expect about 0 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 3% growth — about average.

Outlook: Mixed, and you should hear this straight. The percent growth looks good, but the numbers are tiny: about 70 chemical engineers in North Dakota today and about 80 by 2034. O*NET rounds ND openings to about 0 a year. Openings here happen when one person retires or leaves, and you have to be ready when that happens. Nationally there are about 1,100 openings a year, so being willing to move matters a lot in this field.

Who Hires in ND: Refineries, the Dakota Gasification plant near Beulah, ethanol and corn processing plants, sugar plants, fertilizer plants, engineering and consulting firms, and state environmental agencies. UND lists Cargill, 3M, Chevron, Marathon Oil, and Dakota Gasification among employers of its graduates.

Work Setting: A mix of an office with a computer and the plant floor. Plant floors are loud, hot in places, cold in others, and require a hard hat, safety glasses, and steel-toed boots. Some plants run around the clock, so you may be on call for problems at night.

Physical Demands: Low to medium. Most of the day is sitting at a screen. Plant walks mean climbing stairs and ladders, walking on steel grating, and standing. Many roles can be adjusted so that another person handles the climbing part.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 17-2041); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Process Operator — A two-year-degree job running the equipment inside the plant.

Path 2: Engineer Intern (EI) — Passed the FE exam. Working under a licensed or senior engineer.

Path 3: Process Engineer — You own a unit of the plant and keep it running well.

Path 4: Project Engineer — You design and install new equipment.

Path 5: Plant or Operations Manager — You run the plant and the people in it.

Path 6: Safety or Environmental Engineer — You keep the plant legal and safe.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• Very strong pay
• Real problem-solving every day
• Work that mixes desk and plant floor
• Skills transfer to many industries
• Respected degree nationwide
• Clear path into plant management

What's Hard:

• Very heavy math and chemistry
• Four to five years of college
• Very few ND jobs — about 70 statewide
• May have to move for work
• On-call nights when a unit goes down
• Pay and hiring follow oil and gas prices

Be Honest: Are you genuinely good at math and chemistry, or willing to work hard to get there? Can you commit to four or five years of college? Are you willing to move if North Dakota has no opening the year you graduate?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Chemical Engineer Assessment Results