The way I experienced it whenever I play engineering: Station Goals aren't really a 'burden' that ties up engineering, which would force them to abandon their duties/stretch them thin. Whenever I play engineering, it's either:
-Rarely, half the station gets destroyed by plasma fires/bombs/etc and some of the engineers respond to fix things
-Most of the time, the biggest issues are emagged doors, and a few broken windows; so I just make small little projects / pimping up things, leaving me plenty of time to make station goals, becase at least then I have a 'purpose'... though I never seen the whole engineering team work in unison; rather only a few join in for the project.
The /problem/ is, that most of the time, after building for example, the BSA room, pimped it up and all, either cargo doesn't bother getting the parts, or in most cases, science doesn't do the R&D to finish it, which can be quite frustrating. Admittedly, the DNA vault feels like a chore, because building it is easy, but working with botany and xenobio for the DNA data is frustrating, since there is 0 cooperation most of the time. Station shield is a bit bland I guess, nothing too special; would be better if you'd have to do more than just to drop them in spess and push a button to activate.
For station goals, I would suggest something more 'fun', like: refurbishing, or more like expanding the station, since there is the old bar, or airlocks that would lead to space; (also there is the derelict station, the russky station, the abandoned teleporter) it could be good if there would be a goal to make specific additions to the station, and then have the NT Rep inspect it and give a thumbs up if it is NT approved or not. At least that would give the NT rep role a bit more 'power' so to say, that they get to be the judge whether the station would meet the goals or not. Since it would be hard to implement it to make the game check if the station goals are met, it would be easier if the NT Rep would, for example, have a item like a remote, or an option in his console that unlocks after X time, where he verifies that the station goal is met, thus: greentext. And since the role is karmalocked, then there's less of a chance that it would be abused; plus so far I've seen, only those pick that role, who at least 'try' to properly RP. (Also, it would be a fun tator objective to sabotage the station goal)
Examples:
-NT wants to prepare to host the annual Ragecage event, so a stadium needs to be constructed, large enough to accept X amount of observers with a VIP booth, security checkpoint, a mini medical for the casaulties.
-NT will be having VIPs, build a VIP quarters to accomodate them; with a mix of luxury and class, with extra security and safety.
-NT wants to have a proper military garrison; it needs a proper barracks with mess hall, armory, officer's quarters, etcetc to accomodate an on-station ERT that would arrive in the future.
-NT wants to have a large pasture/petting zoo, for totally recreational purposes and not for the secret future project of animal testing and weaponizing xenos; you have to make secure animal pens with a highly secure lab that would be able to contain xenos.
(And if there are enough admins, and the additions are built; every now and again, if they feel like it, they could run an event. If there is a small chance of such a reward happening, it would encourage people to work together more, imho).