Civil Engineering
Everything OPM FedScope (June 2026) reports about the Civil Engineering occupation series (code 0810): headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison.
The verdict
In the Engineering and Architecture Group family, Civil Engineering counts 10,260 employees, a mid-sized federal occupation at 0.5% of the federal civilian workforce, and headcount edged down from the prior period; pay averages $124,230, which pays near the federal-wide average.
- Headcount change
- -0.4%
- Pay change
- +0.3%
- Avg tenure
- 14.7 yrs
- Rank in family
- #5 of 29
FedScope read on Civil Engineering (dense series)
For job seekers weighing career length: this series shows a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career. Headcount moved down versus the prior period, a useful gauge for job seekers on USAJOBS trying to assess whether this role is expanding government-wide or contracting under hiring freezes and attrition. As for pay, the latest move was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change.
The Engineering and Architecture Group family (code 08) groups Civil Engineering together with 28 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Civil Engineering postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Engineering and Architecture Group family. The Engineering and Architecture Group family totals 120,278 employees, and Civil Engineering accounts for 8.5% of them. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (30th percentile) of pay among Engineering and Architecture Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Civil Engineering pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$124,230
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+5.9%
Where Civil Engineering ranks on rich federal pay
Civil Engineering earns more on average than 70% of federal occupation series (381 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Civil Engineering sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Civil Engineering.
Related Occupations in Engineering and Architecture Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Engineering | 27,619 | $158,941 | 16.9 yrs |
| Engineering Technical | 14,443 | $93,062 | 15.2 yrs |
| Mechanical Engineering | 12,920 | $136,601 | 11.9 yrs |
| Electronics Engineering | 12,889 | $155,270 | 16.8 yrs |
| Aerospace Engineering | 8,359 | $155,848 | 14.8 yrs |
| Electronics Technical | 7,298 | $103,713 | 15.6 yrs |
| Electrical Engineering | 5,231 | $142,419 | 13.5 yrs |
| Computer Engineering | 3,753 | $160,672 | 14.2 yrs |
| Nuclear Engineering | 2,813 | n/a | 13.5 yrs |
| Environmental Engineering | 2,429 | $139,024 | 17 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Civil Engineering outside the Engineering and Architecture Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (10,260 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($124,230 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Civil Engineering pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Engineering and Architecture Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Civil Engineering postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.