Also called: Manufacturing Quality Engineer, QE
Designs the tests, inspections and processes that make sure products come out right every time.
You study a chart showing that one machine's parts are slowly drifting out of tolerance and figure out why before any bad parts ship. You run a root-cause meeting with operators, write a new inspection plan and update the process so the problem can't come back.
BLS groups quality engineers with industrial engineers (median about $101k); quality-specific roles run slightly lower.
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; ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) is common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science.
Growing much faster than average (about 11% over 10 years). Industrial engineers are projected to grow much faster than average.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI vision and statistics software do more inspection analysis; engineers still run root-cause fixes on the floor.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP Physics, AP Calculus.
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.