Also called: Food Engineer, Process Engineer (Food)
Designs the equipment and processes that cook, freeze, dry, and package food at huge scale.
You figure out how to pasteurize juice faster without ruining the taste, or design a new line that fries a million chips a day. You test on the plant floor, crunch heat-transfer math, and work with mechanics during installs.
Estimate based on agricultural and chemical engineers.
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 food, chemical, agricultural, or mechanical engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Agricultural Engineering.
Growing faster than average (about 5% over 10 years). Agricultural engineers.
Low risk for 10 years. AI and simulation speed design; starting up lines, troubleshooting on the plant floor and safety sign-off stay human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Chemistry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2021.
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.