Engineering Technical

What the Numbers Say About Engineering Technical

0.7% of the federal civilian workforce (2,289,472 employees total, March 2025) works in the Engineering Technical occupation (OPM code 802): 16,312 people, headcount up 0.2% 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.

Engineering Technical pays $100,287 per year on average, 8.7% below the $109,869 federal civilian average, after moving up 2.3% from the prior period (a broad shift as locality pay tables and grade-level adjustments moved through the workforce). Employees in this role stay an average of 12.8 years, a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.

The Engineering and Architecture Group family (code 8) groups Engineering Technical together with 28 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Engineering Technical postings should also review these sibling occupations, since federal hiring managers often cross-post positions across closely related codes when recruitment is difficult. All figures here come directly from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes, the same official source referenced in federal workforce planning, budget justifications, and GAO reports.

Within the Engineering and Architecture Group family, Engineering Technical is one of the top 29 occupations by headcount (#2), accounting for 11.4% of the family's combined 142,526 employees. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (17th percentile) of pay among Engineering and Architecture Group occupations.