Structural Engineer CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a chartered project engineer at a mid-size building structures consultancy. The firms are described rather than named. Notice that chartership, building types, materials and codes are all on the first third of the page.

Structural engineering consultancies hire against a backlog of specific project types. The reader is matching you to work they already have.

• Chartership. CEng MIStructE or CEng MICE, IEng, or graduate membership if you are early, plus the date of your Chartered Membership Examination or Professional Review. This is the first filter.
• Building or structure types and sizes. Mid-rise residential, healthcare, education, industrial, bridges, refurbishment. Floor area in square metres, storeys and construction value place you instantly.
• Materials and stability systems. Steel, in situ and precast concrete, post-tensioned slabs, masonry, timber frame and mass timber, and the stability system you have actually designed.
• Whether you have run a project. Producing a calculation package is one thing. Leading a project through the construction stage, RFIs, submittals and site visits is what firms pay for.

“Chartership first, then building types and floor area, then whether the person has been through the construction stage. An engineer who has answered contractor RFIs on a live job is a different hire from one who has only produced calculations in the office.”

Three or four lines: chartership, years, structure types and sizes, materials, codes and software.

The most common weakness on a structural CV is a list of activities with no building attached. Every bullet should carry the structure, the size and the system.

Name the codes as well as the software. A firm reads code familiarity as evidence you can be handed a project rather than trained on one.

• Materials and design codes: Eurocode 3 (BS EN 1993) for steel, Eurocode 2 (BS EN 1992) for concrete, Eurocode 6 for masonry, Eurocode 5 for timber, the Eurocodes with DMRB for bridges, and IStructE guidance on the appraisal of existing structures.
• Loading and general requirements: BS EN 1990 and BS EN 1991 for actions including wind and snow, the UK National Annexes, and Approved Document A of the Building Regulations, including disproportionate collapse.
• Systems: gravity framing, moment frames, braced frames, shear walls and cores, diaphragms, post-tensioned slabs, precast, mass timber, foundations from pad footings to piles and rafts.
• Software: ETABS, SAP2000, Tekla Structural Designer, RAM, SAFE, STAAD.Pro, CSiBridge, Tekla Tedds, plus Revit and AutoCAD for documentation and Tekla Structures if you do detailing coordination.
• Project skills: drawing set production and checking, specification writing, cost and constructability input, construction stage services, RFI and submittal review, site inspection, coordination of site testing and temporary works.
• Existing structures: measured surveys, intrusive and non-destructive testing coordination, load assessment, temporary propping design, working without original drawings.

There is no licence to practise as a structural engineer in the UK and no stamp or seal on drawings. Chartered Engineer (CEng) registration through the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) or the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is the benchmark employers use. Check the current requirements with the institution rather than relying on a general summary.

1. 1Put your registration after your name in the header: "CEng MIStructE" is enough, and employers can check it on the Engineering Council register.
2. 2If you hold Fellow grade (FIStructE) or are a member of both IStructE and ICE, say so explicitly, because senior roles and some clients ask for it.
3. 3If you are not yet chartered, put "IStructE Graduate member" or "ICE Graduate member" with the year, and add when you plan to sit the Chartered Membership Examination or attend the ICE Professional Review. Firms track this closely for their staffing plan.
4. 4Mention an accredited degree (JBM-accredited) if you have one, since it is what makes the route to CEng straightforward.
5. 5List CPD only if it is substantial and relevant, such as a structural fire engineering or timber engineering course, not every one-hour webinar.
6. 6Keep degrees in a plain education block. Structural roles often expect an MEng or an MSc, and firms notice whether the emphasis was structural.

New structural graduates all have similar modules on their degree. What differentiates you is applied work, software fluency and how clearly you can explain a design decision.

• Lead with your IStructE or ICE graduate membership and where you are on the route to chartership. Firms plan around who will be chartered and when.
• Describe placements like jobs: what you modelled, what you detailed, which code you worked to and who checked it.
• Present your dissertation or final-year project as a project with numbers: models run, parameters studied, the finding and how it was validated.
• Name the analysis software you can open and use without help, and be honest about which ones you have only seen at university.
• Add any site exposure: site visits, testing lab work, a summer with a contractor. Firms value new engineers who have seen how things get built.
• Keep it to one page if you can, two at most, and cut module lists once you have any real project work to show.

One to two pages early on, two once you have several notable projects. Many structural consultancies also expect a project list, which is a separate document.

• Keep a short project list ready: name or type, size, construction value, structural system, your role. Firms ask for this at interview stage and it is far more persuasive than the CV alone.
• Mirror the advert's title: structural engineer, project engineer, structural designer, graduate structural engineer, senior structural engineer.
• Put codes and software in a clearly labelled skills block so recruiters can keyword match them.
• No photo, no date of birth. Single column, standard headings, PDF.
• If you trained or registered abroad, say how your degree and registration are recognised in the UK, for example through the Washington Accord, and whether you would relocate.