# Civil Engineers

> Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.

- **SOC code:** 17-2051.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-17-2051-00
- **Also known as:** Civil Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Structural Engineer, City Engineer, County Engineer, Engineer, Geotechnical Engineer
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations.
- Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.
- Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.
- Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
- Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications.
- Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools.
- Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, program modifications, or structural repairs.
- Analyze survey reports, maps, drawings, blueprints, aerial photography, or other topographical or geologic data.
- Direct or participate in surveying to lay out installations or establish reference points, grades, or elevations to guide construction.
- Identify environmental risks and develop risk management strategies for civil engineering projects.
- Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility.
- Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Use drone technology for site surveying, inspection, and monitoring of infrastructure projects.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Design _(knowledge)_
- Engineering and Technology _(knowledge)_
- Building and Construction _(knowledge)_
- Mathematics _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Written Expression _(ability)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Systems Analysis _(Specialized Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Autodesk AutoCAD _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Autodesk Revit _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Bentley MicroStation _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Adobe Acrobat _(hot technology)_
- Apache Subversion SVN _(hot technology)_
- C _(hot technology)_
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks _(hot technology)_

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 75th percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 85th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 68th percentile (High) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 69th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 14th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 5.0% growth (About average); 23.6k annual openings; 368.9k → 387.5k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $99,590; 355,410 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** — automation, 36% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, or program modifications or structural repairs. _(0.5% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel. _(0.4% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards. _(0.3% of measured AI use)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, or program modifications or structural repairs.
- Help me test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.
- Help me inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-17-2051-00_