Marine Engineer
Structural exposure score derived from 2 independent sources (OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" (human_rating_beta) + AIOE (Felten, Raj & Seamans)), each normalized against its own full reference population and combined by simple average, then converted to a percentile.
In real usage data, AI shows up in this job less often than in most occupations.
Technical detail
Based on Microsoft's "Working with AI" study of real Copilot conversations mapped to O*NET tasks (arXiv 2507.07935): Ship Engineers scored 0.025 on AI applicability, notably below the cross-occupation mean (0.159, stdev 0.098) across all 785 SOC codes studied — banded here as Low real-world AI usage relative to other occupations.
What a marine engineer actually does
Shipboard marine engineers — officially "ship engineers" — operate and maintain a vessel's engine room while it's underway: the main propulsion engines, boilers, generators, and the deck machinery, refrigeration, and sanitary systems that keep a ship running for weeks at sea.
The work means monitoring engine indicators and gauges through a watch, diagnosing a malfunction from an unusual vibration, temperature reading, or sound long before it becomes a breakdown, performing repairs at sea with whatever parts and tools are aboard, and sometimes fabricating a replacement part when no spare exists.
Engineers keep detailed engine-room logs, coordinate with the captain on fuel and mechanical status, and act as the technical liaison between the ship and shore-side engineering staff when the vessel is in port. Larger ships carry a hierarchy of engineering officers — chief, first, second, and third engineer — each responsible for specific systems and watch periods.
The job is licensed and demanding: a US Chief Engineer credential requires five years of documented engine-room service, a Coast Guard exam, and STCW certification, built up over years the way a ship captain's license is.
Why it reads this way
Operating a commercial ship's engine room requires a US Coast Guard-issued engineering license under 46 CFR Part 11 — five years of documented service, an STCW Officer-in-Charge-of-Engineering-Watch endorsement, and a Coast Guard exam for even the entry-level license, renewable only through further sea service or refresher training.
Real AI tools exist in this space — Kongsberg's Intelligent Energy Management System and Condition Monitoring Solution, and Wärtsilä's predictive-maintenance integration — but vendors and industry coverage consistently describe these as tools that "support human crews, not replace them," feeding data to the licensed engineer rather than acting on it independently.
Reduced-crew engine rooms do exist under long-standing "periodically unattended machinery space" classifications, letting a ship run without someone physically standing watch around the clock, but this only reduces watch-standing headcount on vessels that still require a licensed chief or assistant engineer aboard or on call — it doesn't remove the engineer's role. No fleet-scale unmanned or fully autonomous engine room operates in commercial service today.
The hands-on diagnostic work — tracing an unusual vibration to its source, fabricating a part with no spare available, judging whether a system can hold until the next port — remains something the sensors flag but a licensed human still has to interpret and act on.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$55,000–$145,000
Average: $94,270/yr
Range source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023
Average source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Ship Engineers (53-5031), May 2023 (Median Annual Wage)
Nearest jobs by score
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Marine Engineer (shipboard Ship Engineer, O*NET 53-5031.00 — distinct from the naval-architecture code 17-2121.00) scores 74/100 (Safe band), corroborated by a Low Microsoft usage band, one of the lowest AI-applicability scores in this batch. Operating a commercial ship's engine room requires a Coast Guard engineering license under 46 CFR Part 11 — five years of documented service, an STCW watch-officer endorsement, and a Coast Guard exam even for the entry-level license. Real AI condition-monitoring tools exist (Kongsberg's Intelligent Energy Management System and Condition Monitoring Solution, Wärtsilä's predictive-maintenance integration), but industry coverage consistently frames these as supporting the licensed crew, not replacing it. Reduced-crew 'periodically unattended machinery space' operation has existed for decades and reduces watch-standing headcount, not the engineer role — a licensed chief or assistant engineer is still required aboard or on call. No fleet-scale unmanned engine room operates in commercial service today. The hands-on diagnostic work this job runs on — tracing an unusual vibration to its source, fabricating a part with no spare available — is exactly the kind of judgment the sensor systems flag but still route to a human to interpret.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-10.
Sources (6)
- https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes535031.htm
- https://www.kongsberg.com/maritime/products2/systems/intelligent-maritime-energy-management/
- https://www.kongsberg.com/maritime/products/engines-engine-room-and-automation-systems/condition-monitoring/
- https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-46/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-11/subpart-E
- https://www.edumaritime.net/uscg-mmc/uscg-chief-engineer-requirements
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/53-5031.00
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Ship Engineers (53-5031), May 2023 (Median Annual Wage).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (53-5031.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 1-3% (2024-2034, estimated from adjacent water transportation occupations), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.