Chief Operating Engineer Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
Chief Operating Engineer groups 3 related titles into a 3-level career ladder.
Entry is typically through Chief Operating Engineer 1, advancing through the ladder toward Chief Operating Engineer 3. Pay across the family spans $60,876 to $106,798, around the 34th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 19 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Health and Senior Services.
Chief Operating Engineer is a common next step after Supervising Engineer and Supervising Highway Engineer.
Positions in This Family
- CHIEF OPERATING ENGINEER 1 (40442) $60,876 - $88,743/year
- CHIEF OPERATING ENGINEER 2 (40443) $66,592 - $97,354/year
- CHIEF OPERATING ENGINEER 3 (40444) $72,896 - $106,798/year
What the Chief Operating Engineer family covers
Chief Operating Engineer is a graded series in the New Jersey civil service classification plan, running 3 title codes across 3 levels. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Engineering series in New Jersey are organized by discipline and then by responsibility, so a family usually reads assistant, then senior, then principal, then supervising. Professional Engineer licensure appears at the senior end rather than at entry, which lets the state hire graduates and license them in post. Transportation is the largest employer of these titles by a wide margin, with Environmental Protection, Treasury property management and the county engineering offices behind it. Construction inspection titles sit nearby but belong to the regulatory side.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Chief Operating Engineer rungs look like this. Here the numbering happens to agree with the pay order, which is not guaranteed elsewhere in New Jersey's plan.
- Chief Operating Engineer 3 — $72,896 to $106,798 (5 years of experience)
- Chief Operating Engineer 2 — $66,592 to $97,354 (4 years of experience)
- Chief Operating Engineer 1 — $60,876 to $88,743 (3 years of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Chief Operating Engineer 1 to the top of Chief Operating Engineer 3 is $45,922, an increase of about 75% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
Each title in the family carries its own published definition. These are the opening lines of each one, which is usually where the difference between two neighboring rungs is actually stated.
- Chief Operating Engineer 1: Under the direction of an Engineer-in-Charge of Maintenance, a Business Manager, or other supervisory official in a State department, institution, or agency…
- Chief Operating Engineer 2: Under the direction of an Engineer-in-Charge of Maintenance, a Business Manager, or other supervisory official in a State department, institution, or agency…
- Chief Operating Engineer 3: Under the direction of an Engineer-in-Charge of Maintenance, a Business Manager, or other supervisory official in a State department, institution, or agency…
What it takes to qualify
None of the specifications in this family names a degree requirement, which places these titles among the New Jersey positions open to applicants without formal higher education. Stated experience runs from 3 years at the lowest rung to 5 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
Every title here carries a license or certification requirement, so the credential matters more than the exam score. On how the jobs are filled: 3 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 19 people working under 3 of this family's titles, spread across 5 agencies. Health and Senior Services alone accounts for about 53% of them.
- Health and Senior Services — 10 employees
- Corrections — 4 employees
- Human Services — 3 employees
- Military and Veterans Affairs — 1 employee
- Treasury — 1 employee
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $80,357 for Chief Operating Engineer 1 up to $96,636 for Chief Operating Engineer 3. Those are medians of what people are really paid, not schedule minimums and maximums.
State payroll only, deduplicated by payroll title; local employers file separately, so a family with local codes looks smaller here than it is. How this is counted.
How the pay is set
Titles in this family are paid on the A-P-R-S salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by CWA. Union contracts and rights are collected here.
Where these jobs exist
These are state titles, hired by New Jersey departments, commissions and boards through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process rather than by an ordinary job posting. How state hiring works, and which agencies employ what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Chief Operating Engineer, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Operating Engineer 2 ($45,874 to $66,294, state jurisdiction) — in the Operating Engineer family
- Operating Engineer Repairer ($45,874 to $66,294, state jurisdiction)
- Operating Engineer Heating and Air Conditioning ($57,158 to $83,211, state jurisdiction)
- Operating Engineer Heating and Air Conditioning Apprentice ($52,308 to $75,954, state jurisdiction)
- Engineer Aide (local jurisdiction)
- Chief Engineer (local jurisdiction) — in the Chief family
Common questions about Chief Operating Engineer jobs
How many Chief Operating Engineer titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Chief Operating Engineer family holds 3 title codes arranged across 3 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Chief Operating Engineer earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $60,876 at the bottom of Chief Operating Engineer 1 to $106,798 at the top of Chief Operating Engineer 3. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Do you need to take an exam to become a Chief Operating Engineer?
Yes for most of the family. 3 of the 3 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.
What qualifications does a Chief Operating Engineer need?
No degree requirement is parsed from the specifications in this family, which puts these titles among the New Jersey civil service jobs reachable without formal higher education. Experience of 3 to 5 years is named where a requirement is stated. 3 of the titles require a license or certification.
Which agencies employ Chief Operating Engineer staff?
State payroll records show 19 people in this family across 5 agencies, with Health and Senior Services the largest at 10. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.