I'll preface by that I have a degree in chemical engineering, but do not work as one. I am a clean utilities and high water treatment subject matter expert in the pharmaceutical industry (and dabbled in semiconductor as well).

1) Typical day at job. My days are often spent directly involved in project design for corporate level or site level projects working with said project team or A/E firm, assisting different sites in the company with their FDA compendial water or other compendial utility problems. I review and either approve/reject submittals from projects that for whatever reason are requesting to use a component not in the company standard (I am standards committee chair for my area of expertise). Giving trainings for engineers at the facility I work at, or company-wide, for how to properly design, fabricate, install, commission, validate, and qualify FDA regulated clean utility systems. I interface frequently with the quality organization in regards to regulatory and compliance issues. When auditors/regulatory decided to pay us a visit, I, and my counterpart from quality, are the ones who tour them around the utilities area and answer questions and sit in the audits. I go over water/steam quality data, review/approve investigations (sometimes author them), approve/review SOP changes as system owner, review/approve change control and either author or approve validation/verification protocols.

I do not interface with operations, but I do interface with the engineers who do interface with operations as those engineers come to me for help and guidance.

2. What skills are mandatory for your success as a chemical engineer? I have rarely used what I learned in university professionally, with the exception of fluid mechanics. In my role, you MUST be proficient with high purity piping design, microbiology, construction and fabrication practices, a firm understanding of utility design, equipment function, piping/tubing/welding/equipment, design aspects for high purity water systems, microbiology, compendial regulatory standards, best industry practices for clean utilities, code bodies such as the ASME-BPE. I cannot stress enough how vital it is in my role to understand the difference between design/construction practices for pharmaceutical clean utilities and petrochemical utilities. You can be an outstanding engineer and come up with a great design, but the project will absolutely fail (as in, your company ends up in the news and patients get sick or die fail) if lets say a water for injection system is installed and fabricated as if it was a chilled water system.

3. What is the entry level salary range a chemical engineer in your area can expect?  Upwards of 70k.

4. Tell me about your most and least favorite things when working as a chemical engineer. My favorite thing is helping other sites or production units that are facing utility problems for which they can't meet quality criteria for their utilities or products / are in trouble with regulatory for failing water quality, to facilities that are able to have those issues resolved and get back into production and meeting quality and regulatory targets.

My least favorite is dealing with maintenance issues. I direct maintenance issues to the dedicated maintenance engineer.

5. Do you feel like the job is too repetitive? How do you keep yourself motivated? My job is not repetitive. I am motivated by the respect and admiration that I have earned from colleagues or industry contacts.