Safety Engineering
Everything OPM FedScope (June 2026) reports about the Safety Engineering occupation series (code 0803): headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison.
The verdict
Safety Engineering is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 340 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Engineering and Architecture Group family. At an average salary of $135,190 it pays above the federal average, and headcount declined from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- -5.6%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 16.5 yrs
- Rank in family
- #22 of 29
What the Numbers Say About Safety Engineering
Headcount moved down versus the prior period, though at this small a headcount, year-to-year swings can reflect a handful of hires or departures rather than a broad hiring trend. Pay moved up between the two reporting periods, a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement.
Code 08, the Engineering and Architecture Group family, is where the federal government classifies Safety Engineering alongside 28 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Safety 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 Safety Engineering accounts for 0.3% of them.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Safety Engineering pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$135,190
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+15.2%
Where Safety Engineering ranks on rich federal pay
Safety Engineering earns more on average than 79% of federal occupation series (426 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Safety Engineering sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Safety 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 |
| Civil Engineering | 10,260 | $124,230 | 14.7 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 |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Safety Engineering outside the Engineering and Architecture Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (340 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($135,190 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Safety 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 Safety 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.