Also called: Biomanufacturing Engineer, Upstream/Downstream Process Engineer
Scales up the production of medicines made by living cells, like vaccines, insulin and antibody drugs, in giant steel bioreactors.
A new cancer drug worked in a 2-liter flask in the lab; your job is to make it work in a 2,000-liter bioreactor. You tune oxygen, temperature and feeding schedules, then figure out how to filter and purify the drug from the cell soup.
Estimate.
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, biomedical or biological engineering; many have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering.
Growing faster than average. Biomanufacturing is expanding in the US.
Low risk for 10 years. Biologic drug production is growing; AI helps model processes, but scale-up and FDA-regulated work stay human.
Classes: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2199.
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.