At present, higher education reform in China is deepening. Administrative departments have formulated many policies on higher education reform to adapt to the new normal of economic development, which put forward new requirements for curriculum system. In this situation, problems existing in geological engineering curriculum system are analyzed: (1) the ideological and political construction of geological engineering major courses is imperfect; (2) the hierarchical relationship and cohesive relationship between courses are improper; (3) curriculum system is lack of flexibility in choice. The optimum design principles of geological engineering curriculum system are established as follows: (1) complying with the basic framework of geological engineering curriculum system; (2) constructing curriculum politics and integrating innovative education into professional education; (3) taking all-round development of students as the fundamental goal, paying attention to cultivation of students' ability and quality. This paper puts forward the basic idea and implementation path of optimization design of geological engineering curriculum system: (1) under the instruction "wide caliber, thick foundation", strengthening the theoretical basis of students' long-term development, focusing on students' practical application ability and innovation ability at the same time; (2) considering school characteristics, conforming to talent development target, meeting regional economic development needs, facing industry requirements; (3) "people oriented, ability oriented", meeting students' growth needs, combining with students' career development plan, keeping up with the frontier of professional science and technology research.