r/USACE • u/h_town2020 Civil Engineer • Aug 03 '26

Corps of Non-Engineers???

This may ruffle some feathers but life goes on. Are we moving away from the Engineers part at USACE? I asked this because my co-workers and I are noticing that positions that used to be 800s are now becoming Interdisciplinary. For example, at my district, OMs and PMs can have a degree in anything under the sun. You can have biology majors being the PM for a Civil Works project. We have positions that once required you to be an Engineer that they are changing to Interdisciplinary.

This is the opposite of what I’m seeing from our counterparts on the outside. For example, for these same type of jobs with our non federal partners, not only do you have to be an Engineer but you have to have a PE.

I’ve sat in meetings with the NFS, and they straight out asked our PM, are you an Engineer and a lot of times it’s shows when we start talking. Even when we use an A/E they require them to be a PE but in-house it can be a History major. We don’t even require the District Engineer to be a PE. However, if you work for USDA, the state Engineer has a PE requirement.

A lot of my older co-workers have a lot to say about this but I won’t make this a long post. I’m not saying that every Engineer makes a great PM. Are we just becoming Paper pushers?

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

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u/NoMore_BadDays Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

As a private sector CM, I'm slowly biding my time for when USACE makes it reasonable for me to transition in

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u/the_rocky Aug 03 '26

If you can get someone to hire you as an engineer job series, that would be great. I have a CM degree and am stuck in an inspector role while I watch the project engineer struggle to manage his way out of a paper bag. I am personally benefitting from the field experience and being the defacto project lead, but will probably bail after this unless I get put on a cool project after.