Talent Maps / Miami / Civil Engineers

Miami Civil Engineer Talent Map (2026)

What civil engineers earn in metro Miami, which public owners and firms employ them, where in South Florida they work, and the highway, water, port and airport projects competing for them.

Hiring civil engineers in Miami?

A talent map shows where a group of professionals works, what they are paid and who else is trying to hire them. This one covers civil engineers in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area, which spans Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and is called metro Miami or South Florida here. Pay figures come from the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey (May 2025), and the demand picture uses project and population data published from 2024 to 2026. Our civil engineering recruiters update it as new data comes out. See also our Miami structural, electrical and data center engineer talent maps.

$83,750Median civil engineer pay in metro MiamiBLS, May 2025

$165,880What the top 10% of South Florida civil engineers earnBLS, May 2025

$8.97BMulti-year capital program at Miami-Dade Water and SewerMiami-Dade County, 2025

$908MGolden Glades Interchange rebuild, due in fall 2031Miami Today, 2024

$866MI-395, SR 836 and I-95 rebuild with the Signature Bridge, due in late 2029FDOT

2029New completion date for the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, five years earlySFWMD

Civil engineer salaries in Miami

The median civil engineer in metro Miami earns $83,750 a year. That is $14,820 below the Florida median of $98,570 and $17,090 below the national median of $100,840. Miami is the one big Florida metro where civil pay sits well under the state. The gap is at the bottom and middle of the range. The 25th percentile is $64,350, against $76,740 statewide. At the top the metro catches up: the 90th percentile is $165,880, above the national $163,220.

Annual pay percentile	Miami metro	Florida	United States
10th percentile	$54,990	$58,640	$68,240
25th percentile	$64,350	$76,740	$79,930
Median	$83,750	$98,570	$100,840
75th percentile	$127,700	$128,450	$129,680
90th percentile	$165,880	$166,680	$163,220

Civil Engineers (SOC 17-2051). Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2025, via O*NET OnLine. Wage surveys run about a year behind current offers.

Civil engineering technicians, the drafters, inspectors and field techs who support design teams, earn a median of $68,860 in metro Miami, above the Florida median of $63,410 and the national median of $64,950. Pay ranges from $43,160 at the 10th percentile to $100,960 at the 90th.

What the spread means in practice: the middle of the Miami pay range is far below Tampa, where the civil engineer median is $100,570, or $16,820 higher. Senior licensed engineers in Miami are priced much closer to the state and national top end, and experienced people can compare offers across South Florida, Tampa and Orlando. Technicians are the reverse, with Miami paying more than the state.

Where Miami’s civil engineers work

Public owners

Miami-Dade Water and Sewer serves nearly 2.4 million residents and executed $603 million of capital work in fiscal year 2024 to 2025, completing 163 construction projects.

FDOT’s Miami-Dade construction office runs the Golden Glades and I-395 projects. FDOT District 4 covers Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, Indian River and St. Lucie counties.

Ports and airports

PortMiami describes about $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades, including the Deep Dredge project and the Port Tunnel, and handled about 1.12 million TEUs in fiscal year 2025.

Miami International Airport is planning a $1 billion Concourse D expansion. Port Everglades is in what its program manager, AtkinsRéalis, calls the largest capital investment program in the port’s history.

Design and program management firms

Kimley-Horn’s Coral Gables office offers roadway, transit and rail, water and wastewater, aviation and development services. It has worked on Miami Worldcenter.

GFT has been program and construction management subconsultant on Miami-Dade’s $7 billion Ocean Outfall Legislation program since 2014. WSP was engineer of record on PortMiami’s shore power, and Moffatt & Nichol did its master planning.

Water management and federal agencies

The South Florida Water Management District and the US Army Corps of Engineers are building the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, which will hold 240,000 acre-feet in the Corps component alone.

A July 2025 agreement moved its completion from 2034 to 2029.

Where the talent sits: Miami submarkets

Downtown and Midtown Miami

TransportationStructures

The I-395, SR 836 and I-95 project runs from NW 17 Avenue to the MacArthur Causeway. Its Signature Bridge spans 1,025 feet over NE 2 Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard.

North Miami-Dade and Golden Glades

TransportationDrainage

The Golden Glades rebuild joins I-95, the Palmetto Expressway, Florida’s Turnpike and State Roads 7 and 9. The work includes demolishing 23 bridges, building 32 and installing 682 planned stormwater drainage boxes.

Virginia Key and South Dade

WastewaterUtilities

The Central District plant sits at 3989 Rickenbacker Causeway. New thickening and dewatering facilities at the Central and South District plants were completed in May 2026, a contract of more than $300 million.

Port and airport districts

MarineAviation

PortMiami, MIA and Port Everglades each run multi-year capital plans, from Royal Caribbean’s $345 million Terminal G to the MIA concourse program.

Broward and Palm Beach

TransportationWater

FDOT District 4 covers Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. Brightline’s stations run from Miami through West Palm Beach.

What’s driving demand for civil engineers in Miami

Water and sewer capital program. Miami-Dade’s $8.97 billion multi-year program includes a federal consent decree totalling $1.6 billion over 15 years, septic-to-sewer work and ocean outfall compliance. The mayor calls it the largest water infrastructure program in Florida’s history.
Golden Glades Interchange. The $908 million rebuild began in March 2024 and is due in fall 2031. About 400,000 vehicles a day use the interchange.
I-395, SR 836 and I-95. The $866 million design-build job is due in late 2029 and includes stormwater upgrades for flooding.
Miami International Airport. The Concourse D expansion adds 17 gates for about $1 billion. Groundbreaking is planned for 2027 and completion for 2030.
Everglades reservoir. Construction began in 2023 and the inflow pump station broke ground in November 2025.
Ports. PortMiami posted 8.56 million cruise passengers in fiscal year 2025, a record, and Royal Caribbean broke ground on a $345 million terminal.
Slower county growth. Metro Miami reached 6.46 million people in July 2024. Miami-Dade County itself lost 10,115 people in the year to July 2025, so land development work is shifting north and west.

Civil specialties tied to these projects

Transportation and bridge design for Golden Glades, I-395 and the Turnpike and I-95 work.
Water, wastewater and stormwater engineers for Miami-Dade’s consent decree and flood work.
Marine and coastal engineers for PortMiami, Port Everglades and the Deep Dredge program.
Aviation civil engineers for the MIA expansion.
Site and land development engineers for Broward and Palm Beach growth. Large data center sites also need them.

The talent pipeline

Florida International University. FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing offers ABET-accredited engineering programs in Miami.
University of Miami. UM’s College of Engineering has ABET-accredited bachelor’s programs in civil, architectural and environmental engineering.
Florida Atlantic University. FAU’s civil, environmental and geomatics programs, and its ocean engineering degree, are ABET-accredited.
Licensing. Senior roles usually require a Florida PE license from the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, which takes a degree from an ABET-accredited program, the FE and PE exams and 4 years of supervised experience. See our data center markets page for site work tied to new campuses.

What this means if you’re hiring

Do not anchor to the Florida median. Miami’s median is $14,820 below it, but the 90th percentile is above the national figure. Senior licensed engineers cost more than the median suggests.
Price senior roles at the 75th percentile. For licensed PEs, plan on $127,700 or higher.
Expect Tampa to compete. Tampa’s median is $100,570 and its 90th percentile is $170,110.
Public programs run for years. Golden Glades runs to 2031, the MIA gates to 2030 and the water program is multi-year. Technicians earn more here than elsewhere in the state, so budget for them.

Need civil engineers in Miami?

Apollo Technical has recruited engineers since 2010. Our recruiting teams place civil, transportation, water and site development engineers on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire basis.

Call 813.701.2797 or see our Miami engineering recruiters page.

Hire civil engineers

Frequently asked questions

How much do civil engineers make in Miami?

The median civil engineer salary in metro Miami is $83,750 a year, according to May 2025 BLS data. The middle half earn between $64,350 and $127,700, and the top 10% earn $165,880 or more.

Do civil engineers earn more in Miami or Tampa?

Tampa, by a wide margin at the median. Its median is $100,570, against $83,750 in Miami. See our Tampa civil engineer talent map.

Who hires civil engineers in Miami?

Public owners such as Miami-Dade Water and Sewer, FDOT, PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport, design firms such as Kimley-Horn and WSP, program managers such as GFT and AtkinsRéalis, and water managers such as the South Florida Water Management District.

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