Fuel Cell Engineers

Overview

Fuel Cell Engineers has a national median salary of $104,110 per year, with +11.2% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Design, evaluate, modify, or construct fuel cell components or systems for transportation, stationary, or portable applications.

Work Values

• Achievement
• Independence
• Working Conditions

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Plan or conduct experiments to validate new materials, optimize startup protocols, reduce conditioning time, or examine contaminant tolerance.
• Provide technical consultation or direction related to the development or production of fuel cell systems.
• Characterize component or fuel cell performances by generating operating maps, defining operating conditions, identifying design refinements, or executing durability assessments.
• Plan or implement fuel cell cost reduction or product improvement projects in collaboration with other engineers, suppliers, support personnel, or customers.
• Conduct fuel cell testing projects, using fuel cell test stations, analytical instruments, or electrochemical diagnostics, such as cyclic voltammetry or impedance spectroscopy.

Work Activities

• Analyzing Data or Information
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge
• Getting Information
• Processing Information
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Working with Computers
• Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others
• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings

Detailed Work Activities

• Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
• Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished a master's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Master's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a bachelor's degree.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Fuel Cell Engineers:

Video Resources