Featured items

There are no featured items on this page

Roading Engineer - Job outlook

Mataaro Huarahi

Marcos Santana crouching down to talk to contractor on roading site.

What are the chances of getting a job?

Many employers offer roading engineering work to engineering students before they finish their qualifications. Students who do work experience at engineering consultancies are often employed on a permanent basis once they graduate.

Civil engineering (which includes roading engineering) is on Immigration New Zealand's long-term skills shortage list, which means that the Government is encouraging skilled roading engineers from overseas to work in New Zealand.

Demand for roading engineers is affected by a number of factors.

The Government's $3 billion investment in transport, between 2004 and 2014.
The need for road construction and maintenance, because of increased use of cars and traffic congestion issues.
New Zealand Transport Authority's 2010 strategy that aims to reduce the road toll from around 440 to under 300 per year, using engineering as one of its strategies.
A shortage of experienced engineers due to the number leaving to work overseas, where pay rates tend to be higher.

Census figures show a 42% increase in the number of roading engineers since 1996.

Number of roading engineers in New Zealand
(1996, 2001, 2006)
Census	Number of roading engineers
1996	501
2001	639
2006	858
Source: Department of Labour, Occupational Indicator Tool.

What types of employers can I work for?

Roading engineers work within the public and private sector for organisations including:

private engineering consultancies
regional and local government authorities
government agencies, such as the New Zealand Transport Agency
construction firms
infrastructure and utility companies, such as the railway companies.

Where can I do this job?

Civil and roading engineering firms exist in most towns and cities in New Zealand. Roading engineers who work on large construction projects, such as the roads for new wind farms, may work in remote areas. Large international consultancies and public sector employers tend to be based in larger towns.

What is happening in this job?

Roading engineers are increasingly required to take sustainability into account when designing roading solutions, by, for example, choosing to build with replenishable or recycled materials.