工程师(gōng chéng shī) - engineer in Mandarin

工程师 (gōngchéngshī) is an "engineer". 工程 (gōngchéng) means "engineering, a project", built from 工 (gōng), "work", and 程 (chéng), "process, procedure", and 师 (shī), "master, skilled person", closes it off the same way it does in 厨师 (chúshī), "chef", and 老师 (lǎoshī), "teacher".

工程师 (gōngchéngshī) is a broad umbrella covering every branch of engineering: 软件工程师 (ruǎnjiàn gōngchéngshī) is "software engineer", 土木工程师 (tǔmù gōngchéngshī) is "civil engineer", and so on, with the specific field simply tacked on the front. On its own, without a qualifier, it is most often assumed to mean a technical or mechanical engineer.

It is a popular answer to "what do you want to be" (你想做什么 nǐ xiǎng zuò shénme) in study and careers vocabulary, alongside 医生 (yīshēng), "doctor", and 老师 (lǎoshī), "teacher".