Internal reference: CIV. The Coast Guard does not publish a short code for this career field.
Plan and manage shore facilities, infrastructure projects, and real property. Lead civil engineering operations for Coast Guard installations.
Officer - Engineering Degree Required, PE License Preferred
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Civil Engineering Officers plan, design, build, and maintain the shore infrastructure the Coast Guard runs on, from piers and hangars to housing, utilities, and aids to navigation structures. Much of the desk work is project management: scoping requirements, writing statements of work, reviewing designs, administering contracts, and tracking budgets and schedules. You also get out to sites, inspecting construction quality and resolving the problems that drawings never anticipated. Because this Department of Homeland Security service operates from hundreds of small units along US coasts, lakes, and rivers, your portfolio is geographically scattered and rarely glamorous. After a hurricane or flood you may deploy to assess damage and restore operations quickly.
You learn federal contracting and acquisition, cost estimating, construction inspection, and the environmental and permitting rules that govern public works. Facility engineering covers structural condition assessment, utilities, waterfront structures, mechanical systems, and the energy management that quietly shrinks an operating budget. Project management becomes a formal discipline with real consequences for schedule slips, change orders, and money left unspent. You practice technical writing and briefing, translating engineering detail for commanders who are not engineers. Commissioning is normally through the Academy, Officer Candidate School, or direct commission, and many officers arrive with an engineering degree and pursue professional licensure.
Managing money that belongs to the public builds a sharp sense of stewardship and documentation. You develop the patience to work inside a process that cannot be rushed and the firmness to hold a contractor to a specification. The role teaches you to decide with imperfect information and then own the outcome years later when the roof leaks. You become the person who actually reads the fine print, which turns out to be an underrated form of leadership. Working across scattered units also builds independence and a comfort with real responsibility unusually early in a career.
Public works and construction management translate cleanly, and government experience is a direct qualification rather than a rough analogy. Veterans move into municipal and state engineering departments, federal agencies, design firms, general contractors, and owner side project management. Professional engineer licensure, which many officers pursue while still serving, multiplies the value of the experience considerably and shortens the climb on the civilian side. Facilities and real estate portfolio management at large corporations is another common landing spot. The federal contracting knowledge alone makes you valuable to any firm that sells to the government.
You start at the civil engineering unit going over project schedules, blueprints, and contractor updates for the shore facilities you manage. The day pulls you between site visits to boat stations and air stations, walking construction sites in a hard hat, and meeting with architects and contracting officers about waterfront and building projects. Afternoons are for reviewing designs, tracking budgets, and coordinating repairs that keep Coast Guard installations mission-ready.
No suitable exact-MOS or related career-field video has been verified for this page yet. No unrelated video or search-results page is substituted.
$77,814–$144,392
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
For Coast Guard CIV Civil Engineering Officer, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceThe October 2026 Reserve Servicewide Examination announcement makes advancement conditional on rating/pay-grade qualifications and command recommendation, with rating-specific examination exceptions. Its scope is Reserve E-5 through E-7, not every grade or active-duty cycle. It does not establish a promotion ceiling for this listing.
Coast Guard October 2026 Reserve advancement examinationService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
Officer Candidate School is a separate competitive commissioning pathway open to Coast Guard enlisted members. This general program does not establish individual eligibility or a transfer to any particular officer specialty. Warrant appointments have separate requirements; no rating-to-warrant feeder match is asserted here.
Coast Guard Officer Candidate SchoolSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Plan and manage shore facilities, infrastructure projects, and real property. Lead civil engineering operations for Coast Guard installations.
Civil Engineering Officers plan, design, build, and maintain the shore infrastructure the Coast Guard runs on, from piers and hangars to housing, utilities, and aids to navigation structures. Much of the desk work is project management: scoping requirements, writing statements of work, reviewing designs, administering contracts, and tracking budgets and schedules. You also get out to sites, inspecting construction quality and resolving the problems that drawings never anticipated. Because this Department of Homeland Security service operates from hundreds of small units along US coasts, lakes, and rivers, your portfolio is geographically scattered and rarely glamorous. After a hurricane or flood you may deploy to assess damage and restore operations quickly.
You learn federal contracting and acquisition, cost estimating, construction inspection, and the environmental and permitting rules that govern public works. Facility engineering covers structural condition assessment, utilities, waterfront structures, mechanical systems, and the energy management that quietly shrinks an operating budget. Project management becomes a formal discipline with real consequences for schedule slips, change orders, and money left unspent. You practice technical writing and briefing, translating engineering detail for commanders who are not engineers. Commissioning is normally through the Academy, Officer Candidate School, or direct commission, and many officers arrive with an engineering degree and pursue professional licensure.
Public works and construction management translate cleanly, and government experience is a direct qualification rather than a rough analogy. Veterans move into municipal and state engineering departments, federal agencies, design firms, general contractors, and owner side project management. Professional engineer licensure, which many officers pursue while still serving, multiplies the value of the experience considerably and shortens the climb on the civilian side. Facilities and real estate portfolio management at large corporations is another common landing spot. The federal contracting knowledge alone makes you valuable to any firm that sells to the government.
Officer - Engineering Degree Required, PE License Preferred. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
A civilian can pursue this specialty through an officer accession path, subject to eligibility and assignment. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
The service documents this career field but does not publish this short code for it; the code shown here is an internal catalog reference.
Coast Guard officer engineering and C5I specialties · reviewed 2026-09-26
Provisional. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
The service documents this career field but does not publish this short code for it; the code shown here is an internal catalog reference.
We have not been able to confirm this exact code in a current official classification document. The occupation is documented, but the code may differ, may have been reorganized, or may be specific to one program. Confirm with an official recruiter before relying on it.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Deployment likelihood: Lower*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.