Also called: Tool Owner, Equipment Engineer
Keeps a fleet of multi-million-dollar fab tools running and upgrades them for better uptime and performance.
You get paged when a deposition tool throws an error at 3 a.m. In the morning you lead the technicians through a deep repair, then analyze why a part keeps failing and work with the vendor on a fix.
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 mechanical, electrical or chemical engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering.
Growing much faster than average. No separate BLS projection; the CHIPS Act is funding many new US fabs.
Low risk for 10 years. Predictive maintenance AI flags failures sooner; hands-on tool upgrades and repairs in the cleanroom stay human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Engineering CTE (PLTW).
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2141.
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.