Also called: Process Engineer, Production Engineer
Designs and improves the way a factory makes a product so it comes out faster, cheaper and with fewer defects.
You start the morning on the factory floor with a stopwatch and a tablet, watching why one station keeps falling behind. After lunch you redesign the fixture that holds the part, run the change by the operators, and model the new layout in CAD. By the end of the week the line is making 40 more parts a shift.
BLS figures are for industrial engineers, the category most manufacturing engineers fall under.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in manufacturing, industrial or mechanical engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.
Growing much faster than average (about 11% over 10 years). Industrial engineers are one of the faster-growing engineering jobs as companies bring production back to the US.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI suggests layouts and analyzes line data; walking the floor, fixing real bottlenecks and leading changes stay human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Engineering CTE (PLTW), Shop or metals class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2112.
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.