Also called: Manufacturing Process Engineer, Plant Process Engineer
Improves the step-by-step process a plant uses to make a product, making it faster, cheaper and safer.
Your plant makes 10,000 gallons of salad dressing a day, but too much gets wasted at changeover. You time each step, find that pipes take too long to clean, and redesign the cleaning cycle to save an hour a day.
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 chemical, mechanical or industrial engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering.
Growing about average (about 3% over 10 years). Tracks chemical engineers.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI tools spot inefficiencies in plant data and draft procedures, so fewer junior engineers; running trials on the floor and fixing problems stays human.
Classes: Chemistry, Statistics, Physics, Computer science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2041.
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.