Architectural and Engineering Manager Career Assessment

2What is a Architectural and Engineering Manager?

An architectural and engineering manager decides what gets designed, who designs it, how long it should take, and what it should cost. You review drawings and calculations before they go out. You sit in front of a client or a city council and explain why the road, the bridge, the water plant, or the building is designed the way it is. You hire and keep engineers, which in North Dakota is harder than it sounds. In a consulting firm you also chase work, write proposals, and watch whether each project is making money or losing it. In a plant or a utility you run the engineering group that keeps the place running and builds the next expansion. You spend part of your week in an office and part of it in a site trailer with mud on your boots.

The Reality: Read this part twice. This is not a job you train for. It is a job you get promoted into. The normal road is an engineering degree, then the Engineer Intern step, then four years of work under licensed engineers, then the PE exam, then several more years as a project engineer and a project manager before anyone hands you a department. That is ten to fifteen years from your first day of college, and most of it is spent doing engineering, not managing. A business degree does not shortcut it. What gets you the title is a record of projects that came in on time, stayed close to budget, and did not come back with problems. The second honest thing: the stamp. Work that leaves your office under a licensed engineer’s seal is somebody’s legal responsibility, and once you are the manager, a lot of it is yours.

Your Responsibilities:

• Plan design projects and decide who works on what
• Review drawings, calculations, and specifications before they go out
• Set project budgets and schedules and explain them when they slip
• Hire, keep, and develop engineers and technicians
• Meet with clients, owners, contractors, and city and county boards
• Visit job sites to see whether the work matches the design
• Make sure the work meets code and the board’s licensing rules
• Write or approve proposals and chase the next project

You are the person who answers for what the drawings say.

3A Day in the Life

7:15 AM — Coffee and email. A contractor sent a question about a detail on a bridge you designed two years ago.

8:00 AM — Project review with three engineers. One job is two weeks behind. Move a person onto it.

9:30 AM — Review a set of drawings before they are sealed. You catch a conflict between the plumbing and the beams.

11:00 AM — Phone call with a city engineer about a water main project the council wants cheaper.

12:00 PM — Lunch with a client, because that is how the next project gets found.

1:30 PM — Drive out to a site. Boots, vest, hard hat. Stand in the trailer and walk the work with the inspector.

3:30 PM — Back at the desk. Look at the month’s numbers on each job — which are making money and which are not.

5:00 PM — Write a proposal for a project that bids in two weeks, then go home.

Half office, half site trailer, and the drawings are always your name.

4Training in North Dakota

Engineering degree first, then a PE license, then years of projects. School is the start, not the finish. There is no degree called architectural and engineering management, and employers are not looking for one. They want an engineer who has proven they can run projects and people. So the road is: get an accredited engineering degree, pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, work under licensed engineers, pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam, and take on bigger projects until somebody puts you over a group. An MBA or a master’s in engineering management comes later, if it comes at all, and it helps most when you want to move to a bigger firm.

Training Pathways:

• Accredited engineering degree (4 to 5 years): Civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, industrial, or petroleum. North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota both offer them. This is the doorway, and there is no way around it that does not cost you many extra years.
• Engineer Intern, then licensure (4 more years, working): Pass the FE exam, register as an Engineer Intern, then work four years under licensed professional engineers before you take the PE exam. You earn a full paycheck the whole time. The ND board publishes this path on its own site.
• Project engineer to project manager to department manager (5 to 10 more years): After the PE, you get handed one project, then several, then the people who run them. This is the part nobody can enroll in. You get it by finishing jobs cleanly and being the person clients ask for by name.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — College of Engineering departments in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, with undergraduate and graduate degrees and some online options (ndsu.edu/coe)
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Industrial Engineering and Management, Manufacturing Engineering, and Robotics and Automation majors, plus graduate programs in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and in Project Management, and accelerated B.S.-plus-MBA and B.S.-plus-Master of Engineering pathways in about five years (ndsu.edu/ime)
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Construction Management major, for the building side of this work (catalog.ndsu.edu/curriculum/undergraduate/construction-management-major)
• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — College of Engineering & Mines degrees in Aerospace, Biomedical, Chemical, Civil (with an Environmental Engineering specialization), Electrical, Energy & Petroleum, Geological, and Mechanical Engineering, undergraduate and graduate, on campus and online (engineering.und.edu/academics)
• ND State College of Science (Wahpeton) — Electrical Technology, Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics Technology, and Precision Machining Technology; these are two-year technical degrees, and the ND board counts an Engineering Technology degree toward licensure only with far more experience, so treat them as a way into the field rather than a road to the PE (catalog.ndscs.edu)
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering Technology, plus Electric Power Technology and Power Process Technology (bismarckstate.edu/academics/programs and catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees/bas)
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Management AAS and the Leadership certificate, online or on campus, if you want the supervision side while you keep working (catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees/career-technical-education/management)
• University of Mary (Bismarck) — online MBA and Master of Organizational Leadership, both aimed at working adults, for the business side after you already hold the engineering credential (online.umary.edu/academics/masters-doctoral-programs)

Before You Start: Strong math through calculus and strong physics. An accredited four-year engineering degree for the licensed road. A driver’s license, because you will be on job sites. And patience, because the licensing clock does not start until you are working.

Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — 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 training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.

5Certification & Licensing

The PE license is the real credential, and North Dakota has its own board. The North Dakota State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (ndpelsboard.org) licenses engineers in this state. You do not have to be a licensed PE to hold every management job in this code — some plant and manufacturing engineering managers are not licensed — but in consulting, in government, and anywhere work gets sealed, the license is the difference between running the group and reporting to the person who does.

What North Dakota Requires:

• Engineer Intern (EI) — the ND board requires a bachelor’s in engineering, an engineering-related field, or an ETAC-accredited engineering technology program, plus the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which the board says it cannot waive. With an ABET-accredited engineering degree you need no experience for the EI. With a non-ABET engineering degree it is 4 years, and with an engineering technology or engineering-related degree it is 6 years (ndpelsboard.org/engineer-interns)
• Professional Engineer (PE) — registration as an Engineer Intern somewhere, plus the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam, which also cannot be waived. Experience after the bachelor’s runs 4 years with an ABET-accredited engineering degree, 8 years with a non-ABET engineering degree, and 12 years with an engineering technology or engineering-related degree (ndpelsboard.org/professional-engineers)
• Five references — the board requires three licensed PEs with firsthand knowledge of your work and two character references, none of them family members
• Project Management Professional (PMP) — PMI’s credential, and common among engineering managers. With a bachelor’s you need 3 years of project management experience, 4 with an associate degree, 5 with a high school diploma or GED, plus 35 hours of project management training. The exam is 180 questions in 4 hours, and you renew with 60 professional development units every 3 years (pmi.org)
• A master’s degree — an MBA or a master’s in engineering management is common at larger firms, and not required anywhere

The Exams: Two engineering exams, both through NCEES and both required by the ND board: the Fundamentals of Engineering exam near the end of college, and the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam after your experience is complete. The board takes about 6 to 8 weeks to review a complete application. The PMP exam is separate and is run by PMI.

Cost: The ND board does not publish its application and license fees on its licensure pages, so ask the board directly at help@ndpelsboard.org or (701) 258-0786 rather than budgeting a guess. NCEES charges its own exam fees. PMI does not publish the PMP exam price on the pages linked from its certification page, so ask PMI. Many engineering firms pay exam fees and review courses for their own staff, so ask your employer first.

Keeping It Current: ND engineering licenses renew on the board’s schedule and require continuing education. The PMP takes 60 professional development units every 3 years.

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Architectural and Engineering Manager Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $53.91–$63.53/hour ($112,130–$132,150/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $70.86/hour ($147,400/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $84.27–$103.42/hour ($175,280–$215,100/year)

What that means: This is the best-paying job in this series in North Dakota. The middle architectural and engineering manager here earns about $147,400 a year, and even the bottom tenth earns about $112,130, which is more than the middle of most jobs in this state. The top tenth reaches about $215,100. Now the honest part: the national middle is about $171,270 and the national top tenth reaches about $262,760. You will earn noticeably less here than you would in Denver, Minneapolis, or Houston doing the same work. North Dakota’s cost of living takes some of that back but not all of it. What ND offers instead is that you can run real projects sooner, because there are fewer engineers here to stand in line behind.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 320 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 340 (about 7% growth). Expect about 20 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 4% growth.

Outlook: Good pay, thin openings. O*NET shows North Dakota going from about 320 architectural and engineering managers in 2024 to about 340 in 2034, roughly 7% growth, with about 20 openings a year. Twenty. That is the whole state. Nationally the job grows about 4%, so ND is actually growing faster than the country — the state is just small. Most of those openings come from people retiring, not from new positions, and they cluster in Fargo, Bismarck, and Grand Forks where the consulting firms are. If you want this job in North Dakota, plan on being inside a firm already when the seat opens, because these do not get posted and filled by strangers. Minnesota and Colorado both have far more of these jobs if you are willing to move, and Minneapolis is a four-hour drive from Fargo.

Who Hires in ND: Consulting engineering firms like the ones in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot; the ND Department of Transportation and city and county engineering offices; rural water and electric cooperatives; oil and gas companies and pipeline operators in the west; manufacturing plants; and the engineering groups at utilities and large ag processors.

Work Setting: An office most of the week, a job site the rest. Site trailers, gravel, wind, and North Dakota winter when a project is under construction. Expect 45 to 55 hours a week, more when a bid is due or a job is in trouble. Travel across the state is normal, and if you work for a consulting firm you may be in three towns in one week.

Physical Demands: Low in the office, moderate on site. You will walk uneven ground, climb ladders and scaffolding, wear a hard hat and steel toes, and stand outside in weather that is not fit for standing outside in. Nothing here is heavy, but you need to be able to get around a construction site safely.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 11-9041); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Engineer Intern — You passed the FE and you are working under licensed engineers. Everyone starts here.

Path 2: Staff or Design Engineer — You do the calculations and the drawings. Three or four years of this is the price of the license.

Path 3: Licensed Professional Engineer — You passed the PE. Now your name can go on work, and everything changes.

Path 4: Project Engineer or Project Manager — You own a job — the schedule, the budget, and the client.

Path 5: Engineering or Department Manager — You run a group of engineers and several projects at once.

Path 6: Principal, Director, or Firm Owner — You own part of the firm, or you run engineering for a utility or an agency.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• The best pay in this series — about $147,400 in the middle and about $112,130 even at the bottom tenth
• You can point at a bridge, a road, or a water plant and say you had a hand in it
• The PE license is portable — it means something in every state
• You keep solving technical problems instead of only managing people
• ND has fewer engineers than it needs, so you run real work sooner than you would in a big city
• You get out of the office and onto real sites

What's Hard:

• About 20 openings a year in the whole state, and most are filled from inside
• Ten to fifteen years from your first college class to the manager title
• ND pay trails the national middle by about $24,000
• The work that leaves your office under a seal is somebody’s legal responsibility, and a lot of it is yours
• Bid deadlines and project trouble both eat your evenings
• Hiring engineers in North Dakota is genuinely hard, and being short-staffed becomes your problem

Be Honest: Are you willing to be an engineer for a decade before you are a manager? Can you pass two hard national exams, the second one years after college? Can you tell a client no when the design will not work, and can you tell your own engineer their drawing is wrong? And are you comfortable with the fact that the state has roughly twenty of these openings a year?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Architectural and Engineering Manager Assessment Results