ACEC NE announces 2026 Biennial Salary Survey & Report

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Participation is now open for our 2026 Biennial Salary Survey & Report, a valuable engineering specific compensation and workforce benchmarking tool designed to support business and talent decisions here in Nebraska.

There is no cost to participate and submit data (for member and non-member firms). Our goal is to encourage broader participation, strengthen the data set, and provide a more useful picture of compensation and workplace trends. (Firms that submit data can purchase the final report at a discounted rate.)

Our 2026 Salary Survey will include two components: 1. salary-by-position data to be submitted through an Excel spreadsheet, and 2. additional benefits questions submitted via an online system. All responses will be collected and reported by OBI Creative. Responses will remain confidential and only aggregated data will be reported.

Timeline:

  • Survey released: June 8-10
  • Survey completion deadline: July 3
  • Final summary report available: Early September
  • Participation is free and encouraged

The 2026 Salary Survey Final Report will help support decision-making around recruitment, retention, compensation planning, and workforce strategy. The report will include:

  • Executive summary highlighting key findings and implications
  • Methodology and limitations
  • Salary tables organized by standardized position
  • High-level comparisons to prior survey waves (where feasible)
  • A clickable table of contents
  • Section-level navigation using standard Adobe PDF tools

Discounted Final Report cost:

  • Any member firm that submits data will receive the final report for a discounted cost of $600.
  • Any non-member firm that submits data will receive the final report for a discounted cost of $750.

If you wish to purchase the final report only, the fees are:

  • ACEC NE member | $850
  • Non-member | $950

Please let us know your interest as soon as possible Salary Survey Interest Form

Your participation will help create a strong benchmarking tool for evaluating salaries, benefits, PTO, bonuses, hiring trends, turnover, and other HR practices. The greater the participation, the more valuable the final results.

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Aaron Buettner

State Director

Aaron Buettner, PE, CVS leads Benesch’s Nebraska structural group, bringing more than 27 years of experience in structural engineering, project management and value engineering to every project he touches. His work spans highway, railroad and pedestrian bridges, and he has delivered public and private projects across the country involving a wide variety of materials and structure types.

Aaron’s technical depth covers the full project lifecycle, from structural design and in-service inspection to forensic evaluation and construction administration. He is proficient in multiple structural design and analysis software platforms and has a keen understanding of load paths and constructability. As a Certified Value Specialist (CVS), Aaron’s Value Engineering work has generated tens of millions of dollars in potential construction cost avoidance for clients ranging from state DOTs to transit agencies.

Notable projects include the Lincoln South Beltway, where his team designed 10 of 21 bridges on the freeway corridor; the N-12 Emergency Bridge Repairs in northeast Nebraska, where biddable plans for three flood-damaged structures were delivered in just three weeks; and the Penny Bridges Replacement in Lincoln, where value planning produced a context-sensitive solution that earned broad community support.

Aaron also serves as a Structures Specialist on Nebraska Task Force 1 (NE-TF1), which is one of 28 FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) teams located throughout the United States. In this role, he supports the search and rescue mission by assessing damaged structures, recommending structural hazard mitigation within those structures, and monitoring the structure for condition changes during rescue and victim recovery operations. During his tenure with NE-TF1, he has deployed ​on numerous missions within the state of Nebraska and around the nation to assist communities that have been impacted by emergencies or disasters.

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