Assistant Structural Engineer - Aviation & Federal (Chicago)
Location
Chicago, IL
Wage
$80,000 – $120,000/yr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on November 3, 2026
Location
Chicago, IL
Wage
$80,000 – $120,000/yr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on November 3, 2026
The Assistant Structural Engineer will support project teams in creating designs for various projects in aviation, government, military, and other sectors. This role involves assisting in structural design, modifying production drawings, and ensuring compliance with project requirements under the supervision of a licensed engineer.
At roughly $48/hr, this posting sits about 27% above the $38/hr median for welding jobs in Chicago, IL — toward the top of a $31–$50/hr middle band drawn from 71 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 75% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. Pay that far above local median usually comes attached to something: a harder cert requirement, travel, night shift, or overtime that isn't really optional. Worth establishing which before you accept.
We're tracking 95 other active welding openings in Chicago, IL right now, from 48 different employers. 24 of them were added in the last week. Across Illinois as a whole we're tracking 331 other active welding openings from 199 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Chicago, or widen the search to Illinois.
Burns & McDonnell currently has 5 other openings live in Illinois, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.
The most active employers in Illinois at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Gerber Collision & Glass (17), S&C Electric Company (11), and Venteon (9). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.
Within Illinois, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Chicago at $38/hr, Downers Grove at $36/hr, and Addison at $36/hr. Chicago is among them.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Assistant Structural Engineer - Aviation & Federal (Chicago) figures were last recalculated when this page was built.