E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802 and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving into chemical compounds. The company's Engineering Department was initially organized in 1903 as a division of the High Explosives Department, with the purpose of designing and constructing high explosives plants, powder machinery, and extensions to existing plants. The Engineering Division of the High Explosives Department was consolidated with the Black Powder Engineering Division in 1911 to become the Engineering Department.

The first engineering group to perform design and construction work for the DuPont Company was the Manufacturer's Contracting Company, which later became the Construction Division of the Black Powder Department. In 1911, the Construction Division was absorbed by the newly created Engineering Department, along with the Brandywine Shops, responsible for fabricating equipment for the company's smokeless powder plants. In 1920, the Brandywine Shops were closed, and the Betts Machine Company, which had been purchased in 1917 to meet increased production demands during World War I, was reconstituted as the Wilmington Shops. The Wilmington Shops became the manufacturing section of the Construction Division, fabricating special equipment and providing emergency repair service for the company's manufacturing plants.

When the United States entered World War I, the DuPont Company was called upon to build and operate smokeless powder plants for the United States government. In order to handle this unprecedented rush of construction, DuPont created the DuPont Engineering Company. Both the Engineering Company and the Engineering Department employed the same personnel, but only the company performed work for outside war contracts (for example, Atlas Powder Company, Giant Powder Company, Grasselli Powder Company, Hazard Powder Company, Hercules Powder Company, and Judson Powder Company--some of which had been spun off from the DuPont Company due to government regulations) in addition to their work for E. I. du Pont de Nemours. Aside from war contracts, the department also built plants to accommodate the company's twentieth-century growth. In addition to high explosives plants, the Engineering Department constructed plants that manufactured cellophane, rayon, paint developments, dye, and fabrikoid. After the war, the DuPont Engineering Company continued to do outside design and construction work for companies such as General Motors Corporation and the Wilmington City Marine Terminal, but it ceased active work around 1924 after complaints from competing private contractors, and the engineering company was dissolved in 1928. With the United States entering World War II in 1941, the DuPont Powder Company began governmental projects with plants being constructed in support of war efforts.

Following the dissolution of the Engineering Company in 1928, the Engineering Department continued work within the DuPont Powder Company. The department itself was divided into branches of Black Powder and High Explosives, which were then separated further into High Explosives, Smokeless, and Black Powder.

As the DuPont Company diversified its product lines, manufacturing operations became increasingly sophisticated. The Design Division was responsible for adapting plant designs to meet production requirements in light of rapidly advancing technology. Innovative equipment designs made it possible to increase productivity while minimizing material costs. The Design Division was also instrumental in the development of uniform standards for industrial design.

The Industrial Engineering Division was established in 1928 by the merger of the Mechanical Experimental and Operative Engineering divisions. This division was responsible for organizing a task force to develop a reconversion and modernization program at the end of World War II, which stressed the need for technological improvements in production processes to offset higher costs for labor and materials. In 1949, it was renamed the Engineering Service Division. The new division continued to oversee the work of field engineers stationed at company plants, as well as providing additional consulting services to achieve greater efficiency in manufacturing operations.

Recognizing the important contribution of fundamental research, the Engineering Department established a Technical Division at the Experimental Station in 1931. The Chemical Department's Chemical Engineering Section, which had been established in 1929, was merged into the Technical Division in 1935. The Technical Division was renamed the Development Engineering Division in 1945. The division continued to engage in fundamental and applied research at the same Experimental Station site, which was now designated the Engineering Research Laboratory in 1946. The division was renamed the Engineering Research Division in 1960 and the Engineering Research and Development Division in 1969.

In 1985, the Construction and Design divisions were reconstituted as the Project Engineering Division. The name of the department was renamed DuPont Engineering in 1990.