Also called: Nadcap Auditor, Special Process Engineer
Audits factories that heat-treat, weld, coat or X-ray aerospace parts.
You spend a week at a heat-treating shop watching processes, checking temperature records, and writing findings. Your approval decides whether the shop can keep supplying parts to aircraft makers.
Many auditors are contractors paid per audit.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in engineering or metallurgy plus years in the process.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Materials Engineering, Metallurgy.
Growing about average. Small specialty.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI reviews records and flags issues before audits; on-site judgment of welding, coating and heat-treat shops stays human.
Classes: Chemistry, Statistics, English composition, Shop class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 13-1041.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.