This is the third of three invited papers prepared for a special panel session of the National Collaborative Task Force on Engineering Graduate Education Reform that is focusing one of its primary tasks on faculty reward system reform in order to advance professional engineering graduate education for enhanced creative engineering practice for technology development & innovation across the country. Based upon the findings of the first two papers of this panel session and the positive response for faculty reward system reform perceived at the 2006 annual ASEE conference, this paper recommends guidelines and a path forward for developing new unit criteria for faculty in professionally oriented graduate engineering programs. The suggested framework correlates with the nine levels of proficiency in the practice of engineering recognized by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and that used in industry and government service.