The people who print the labels and boxes on everything you buy, design clever packaging, and make the paper, plastic and rubber that products are made from.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Pulp & Paper Process Engineer: Keeps giant paper mills running efficiently, turning wood chips into paper, cardboard and tissue. Typical pay $115k.
Printing Plant Manager: Runs a printing or packaging plant that turns out labels, magazines, boxes or signs. Typical pay $110k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Packaging Engineer: Designs the boxes, bottles, blister packs and shipping cartons that protect products and get them to you in one piece. Typical pay $98k.
Plastics Engineer: Designs plastic parts and the molds and processes that make them, from phone cases to medical tubing. Typical pay $100k.
Structural Packaging Designer: Invents clever folding boxes, displays and inserts, figuring out how a flat sheet of cardboard turns into a 3D package. Typical pay $68k.
Packaging Line Technician: Keeps the fast-moving machines that fill, cap, label and box products running. Typical pay $56k.
Print Color Management Specialist: Makes sure a brand's colors print exactly right on every box, label and poster. Typical pay $62k.
Print Estimator: Figures out what a print or packaging job will cost so the company can quote a price and still make money. Typical pay $72k.
Print Production Planner: Schedules which jobs run on which presses and when, so everything ships on time. Typical pay $56k.
Paper Machine Tender: Runs a paper machine the length of a football field that turns watery pulp into rolls of paper, cardboard or tissue at highway speeds. Typical pay $66k.
Pulp Mill Operator: Runs the giant pressure cookers and chemical systems that turn wood chips into pulp for paper and packaging. Typical pay $72k.
Packaging Sustainability Specialist: Helps companies redesign packages to use less plastic, more recycled material, and meet new state packaging laws. Typical pay $82k.
Beverage Can Making Technician: Keeps the ultra-fast machines running that stamp flat aluminum into 2,000 drink cans a minute. Typical pay $64k.
Starter: fastest way in
Printing Press Operator: Sets up and runs printing presses that print labels, magazines, boxes and packaging. Typical pay $43k.
Prepress Technician: Prepares digital files and printing plates so jobs print correctly. Typical pay $46k.
Screen Printer: Prints designs on T-shirts, posters, signs and gear by pushing ink through fine mesh screens. Typical pay $37k.
Blow Molding Machine Operator: Runs machines that inflate hot plastic like a balloon inside a mold to make bottles, jugs and containers. Typical pay $40k.
Corrugator Operator: Runs the giant machines that glue paper together into the wavy cardboard used for shipping boxes. Typical pay $46k.
Tire Builder: Builds car and truck tires layer by layer before they're cured in giant molds. Typical pay $50k.
Plastic Extrusion Operator: Runs machines that melt plastic pellets and push them through dies to make pipe, film, sheet, window frames and tubing. Typical pay $45k.
Thermoforming Machine Operator: Heats plastic sheets and vacuums them over molds to make food trays, clamshell packages, cups and car parts. Typical pay $43k.
Laminating & Adhesive Bonding Operator: Runs machines that glue layers of paper, plastic film, foil or wood together to make packaging, labels and panels. Typical pay $43k.
Die Cutter Operator: Runs presses that cut printed cardboard into box shapes, labels and displays with steel-rule dies. Typical pay $44k.
Packaging Machine Operator: Runs machines that fill, seal, wrap, label and box products in factories, from cereal to medicine to dog food. Typical pay $43k.
Package Testing Lab Technician: Drops, shakes, squeezes and freezes boxes in a lab to prove products will survive being shipped across the country. Typical pay $50k.
Gravure Cylinder Engraver: Engraves millions of tiny cells into copper printing cylinders that print snack bags, wallpaper and labels. Typical pay $52k.
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.