If you’re a trained engineer with a passion for the water, perhaps it’s time to start considering careers in the marine field. There are dozens of potential boating jobs that will reward your training and passion at a very high level, and a career in this field will keep you on the water and engaged with the recreational activities you love.

If you’re not familiar with the boating industry, where do you start? Employers will love the passion for boating you bring to the table, but matching your training, passion, and career path can take some thought. Fortunately, there’s a huge demand for dedicated, career-minded people who want to use their skills to help grow and expand the industry, and the right candidate is worth a considerable investment.

We'll help you navigate this exciting field and find the perfect job to suit your education and love of the water. Here are some of the top options to start thinking about if you’ve got the skills and desire to succeed.

OEM Engineering Jobs

OEM (“original equipment manufacturer”) organizations build the products of the boating industry. As an engineer for one of these companies, you’d be responsible for any number of tasks:

• Designing, developing, and testing integrated systems for the manufacturing process.
• Designing and testing manufacturing tools and equipment.
• Developing and troubleshooting products.
• Failure analysis.
• Working with other disciplines like finance, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and design.
• Fieldwork on defective or malfunctioning equipment.

Depending on what type of boating jobs you have your eye on, you’ll need to be trained in a specific area of engineering. However, don’t let that discourage you; most employers expect to train you, and they’ll make sure you’ve got the certifications and industry-specific know-how you need. Your job is to be worth the investment, and that’s where a dedicated industry recruiter can be an invaluable asset.

Industrial Engineer

Industrial engineers in the marine field typically work in a manufacturing plant designing, developing, and testing manufacturing systems. There’s a lot of variety in this work, as some days you’ll be in the office, other days getting your hands dirty out on the floor. If you’re fascinated by watercraft, you’ll never get bored finding ways to make them better, more consumer-friendly, and more efficient to manufacture and operate.

It’s a great way to earn a living, with the average yearly salary for these boating jobs being just shy of $100,000. It’s also a field with very promising growth potential in the next eight years, with BLS experts anticipating 38,400 new jobs being added, or a growth rate of 12%. These numbers are well above average for most career fields.

Mechanical Engineer

OEM manufacturers also need engineers to help them develop products and tools for the marine industry. Here’s your chance to make the big toys for the next generation! You will potentially be designing and testing:

• Boat equipment and accessories for new model years. Some work will be clean sheet design, and other roles focus on iterative growth.
• Various product lines to ensure design and function continuity.
• Tools for mechanics with boating jobs.
• Heavy equipment for boats, such as propulsion plants, navigation tools, etc.
• QC testing for finished products.

Like industrial engineers, mechanical engineers can expect to earn an average of slightly less than $100,000 a year. Also, the growth potential is almost as amazing, with the BLS anticipating over 28,000 jobs (or 10% growth) over the next eight years. Like many jobs in the marine industry, if you’re a valuable employee who stands out from the crowd, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to advance your career and focus on the products that interest you the most.

Naval Architect

One of the most rewarding boating jobs engineers can find is that of a naval architect. You’re going to be directly involved with the design and testing of entire vessels, which means plenty of time on the water. These boating jobs will take you into all sorts of familiar and unfamiliar waters along the way, including:

• Clean-sheet and iterative-model designs for entire vessels.
• Calculating stability and load parameters.
• Balancing design characteristics to achieve customer/product requirements.
• Going on the water to test out your design work.
• Planning modifications for single vessels or entire product lines.
• Custom design work for special use case scenarios.
• Integrating hardware systems for entire vessels.
• Repair planning and management.

The salary for naval architects is around $100,000 per year. Unlike the previous types of boating jobs for engineers, the growth rate is fairly limited at 1% before 2032. But this shouldn’t discourage you, as there are still an average of about 400 open positions a year, mostly due to normal turnover.

Like many specialized industries, the trick to landing dream boating jobs is to connect with a dedicated recruiting partner who can separate you from the pack and get your resume into the hands of employers who need you today. It shouldn’t cost you anything to get your resume on file with one of these experts either, and you’ll enjoy complete confidentiality in the hiring process.

Electrical Engineer

Power is something nobody can go without, and electrical engineers are in constant demand in order to meet the needs of sailors operating in the unforgiving fresh/salt-water environments that play so poorly with electronics and electrical systems.

Here are some of the boating jobs electrical engineers will be asked to perform:

• Design and test water-resistant equipment for marine applications (radios, fish-finders, pumps and hoists, lighting systems, etc.).
• Design power supply and distribution systems for whole vessels, integrating various components.
• Troubleshoot damaged or misbehaving equipment to identify and correct problems, either for individual pieces of equipment or entire product lines.

Electrical engineers earn an average annual salary of about $109,000 per year. The industry still has a solid growth potential of 5% by 2032, more than naval architects, but less than industrial or mechanical engineers.

Passion Sells

In a highly competitive hiring environment, passion is often a key differentiator that employers are looking for in an investment. However, relying on your resume qualifications alone makes it hard to stand out—especially when you’re going to be competing with large online job pools and engineers from a variety of industries.

The truth? Most of these desirable boating jobs for engineers are filled by recruiters before they ever hit the job boards. We know because, at V20 Recruiting, that’s exactly what we specialize in. We’re working closely with the biggest players in the marine industry every day to hand-deliver candidates like you. They trust us to bring them highly qualified enthusiasts who are hungry for a career and can grow their business, and that’s why we always work 100% confidentially and at no cost to you so our clients get the best of the best every time.

The key to making your dream come true is to work with a partner who can help market you to potential employers. V20 Recruiting will help you leverage your passion and training into a highly satisfying and rewarding career. Contact us today and supercharge your engineering job search in the marine industry.