Also called: Fire Engineer, Life Safety Engineer
Designs sprinklers, fire alarms, smoke control and exits that keep buildings safe in a fire.
You calculate how much water a warehouse sprinkler system needs to drown a fire in stacked plastic boxes. Later you test a new hospital's smoke-control fans with the fire marshal watching.
Only a handful of universities offer the degree, so graduates are in demand.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in fire protection or mechanical engineering; PE in fire protection.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Safety Engineering, Fire Protection Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). Tracks health and safety engineers.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Design software and AI automate sprinkler and alarm layouts, trimming junior design; code calls and inspections stay human.
Classes: Physics, Chemistry, Drafting or CAD, Algebra II.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2111.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.