Internal reference: NAV. The Coast Guard does not publish a short code for this career field.
Manage engineering systems aboard Coast Guard cutters. Oversee propulsion, electrical, and damage control systems.
Officer - Engineering Degree Required
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Naval Engineering Officers manage the machinery, hull, and systems of cutters and boats, either aboard as an engineer officer or ashore in maintenance and acquisition programs. At sea the day covers propulsion and auxiliary plant status, casualty response, maintenance planning, fuel and parts accounting, and leading the engineering department. Ashore you may oversee depot maintenance, shipyard availabilities, contract work, and the engineering that keeps an aging fleet running. Since Department of Homeland Security cutters work rescue, icebreaking, buoy tending, and law enforcement mostly in American waters, repairs often happen underway rather than comfortably pierside. Commissioning comes through the Academy, Officer Candidate School, or a direct commission for engineers already working in industry.
You learn marine propulsion, electrical generation, auxiliary systems, hull structure, and the diagnostics of plants you cannot simply shut down and walk away from. Maintenance management teaches planning, budgeting, contracting, and prioritizing repairs against limited funds and yard time. You develop casualty control leadership, running a team through flooding, fire, or a plant failure while at sea. Naval architecture fundamentals, stability calculations, and damage control engineering form part of the professional base you carry ashore. Leading a department builds personnel management, qualification programs, and the technical mentoring of people who do the work daily.
Engineering leadership builds a strong bias toward evidence, because a machine does not care at all about your opinion of it. You develop calm during casualties and the discipline to follow a written procedure while the whole department waits on you. The role teaches you to trust experienced technicians while still verifying their work, and to do it without insulting anyone. Long patrols with limited spare parts build resourcefulness and a working comfort with imperfect solutions that get you home. Accountability for expensive equipment and for people's safety sharpens your judgment far faster than a classroom would.
Marine engineering translates directly, and licensed mariner paths are open to officers with documented sea service. Shipping companies, offshore energy, shipyards, naval architecture and marine engineering firms, and port authorities all hire this background. Shore experience in maintenance and acquisition supports program management and engineering management careers, including continued federal service in transportation and infrastructure agencies. Professional engineer licensure or a graduate degree earned on the GI Bill compounds the value of that record considerably. The combination of technical depth and managing people is what moves engineers into plant and operations director roles.
Your day begins in main control checking the night orders, monitoring gauges, and reviewing the engineering log with your watchstanders. You move through the engine room troubleshooting the diesels, load-testing the generators, and running damage control drills with your snipes while the cutter is underway. In the wardroom you review maintenance schedules, order parts, and brief the CO on the material condition of the ship.
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 NAV Naval 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.
Manage engineering systems aboard Coast Guard cutters. Oversee propulsion, electrical, and damage control systems.
Naval Engineering Officers manage the machinery, hull, and systems of cutters and boats, either aboard as an engineer officer or ashore in maintenance and acquisition programs. At sea the day covers propulsion and auxiliary plant status, casualty response, maintenance planning, fuel and parts accounting, and leading the engineering department. Ashore you may oversee depot maintenance, shipyard availabilities, contract work, and the engineering that keeps an aging fleet running. Since Department of Homeland Security cutters work rescue, icebreaking, buoy tending, and law enforcement mostly in American waters, repairs often happen underway rather than comfortably pierside. Commissioning comes through the Academy, Officer Candidate School, or a direct commission for engineers already working in industry.
You learn marine propulsion, electrical generation, auxiliary systems, hull structure, and the diagnostics of plants you cannot simply shut down and walk away from. Maintenance management teaches planning, budgeting, contracting, and prioritizing repairs against limited funds and yard time. You develop casualty control leadership, running a team through flooding, fire, or a plant failure while at sea. Naval architecture fundamentals, stability calculations, and damage control engineering form part of the professional base you carry ashore. Leading a department builds personnel management, qualification programs, and the technical mentoring of people who do the work daily.
Marine engineering translates directly, and licensed mariner paths are open to officers with documented sea service. Shipping companies, offshore energy, shipyards, naval architecture and marine engineering firms, and port authorities all hire this background. Shore experience in maintenance and acquisition supports program management and engineering management careers, including continued federal service in transportation and infrastructure agencies. Professional engineer licensure or a graduate degree earned on the GI Bill compounds the value of that record considerably. The combination of technical depth and managing people is what moves engineers into plant and operations director roles.
Officer - Engineering Degree Required. 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: Moderate*
* 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.