Manufacturing Engineers
Design, integrate, or improve manufacturing systems or related processes. May work with commercial or industrial designers to refine product designs to increase producibility and decrease costs.
Also known as: Advance Manufacturing Engineer, Automation Engineer, Design Engineer, Engineer, Facility Engineer, Foundry Process Engineer, Lean Manufacturing Engineer, Manufacturing Applications Engineer, ...
Annual Salary
Median annual wage (May 2024)
Job Outlook
Projected growth, 2024–2034 (Much faster than average)
What You'd Do
- Apply continuous improvement methods, such as lean manufacturing, to enhance manufacturing quality, reliability, or cost-effectiveness.
- Design layout of equipment or workspaces to achieve maximum efficiency.
- Communicate manufacturing capabilities, production schedules, or other information to facilitate production processes.
- Design, install, or troubleshoot manufacturing equipment.
- Estimate costs, production times, or staffing requirements for new designs.
- Evaluate manufactured products according to specifications and quality standards.
- Investigate or resolve operational problems, such as material use variances or bottlenecks.
- Prepare documentation for new manufacturing processes or engineering procedures.
- Purchase equipment, materials, or parts.
- Review product designs for manufacturability or completeness.
- Troubleshoot new or existing product problems involving designs, materials, or processes.
- Prepare reports summarizing information or trends related to manufacturing performance.
- Provide technical expertise or support related to manufacturing.
- Read current literature, talk with colleagues, participate in educational programs, attend meetings or workshops, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in the manufacturing field.
- Supervise technicians, technologists, analysts, administrative staff, or other engineers.
- Train production personnel in new or existing methods.
- Analyze the financial impacts of sustainable manufacturing processes or sustainable product manufacturing.
- Develop sustainable manufacturing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize raw material use, replace toxic materials with non-toxic materials, replace non-renewable materials with renewable materials, or reduce waste.
- Evaluate current or proposed manufacturing processes or practices for environmental sustainability, considering factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water pollution, energy use, or waste creation.
- Identify opportunities or implement changes to improve manufacturing processes or products or to reduce costs, using knowledge of fabrication processes, tooling and production equipment, assembly methods, quality control standards, or product design, materials and parts.
Top Skills
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Knowledge Areas
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Education Level Distribution
Percentage of workers in this occupation by education level
Technology & Tools
Software and tools commonly used in this role
In-Demand Technologies
Other Tools
Work Styles
Personality traits and work styles important for this career
Key Abilities
Cognitive, physical, and sensory abilities important for this role
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Activities
General types of job behaviors occurring on this job
Importance scale: 1 (low) – 5 (high)
Work Environment
Physical and social factors that influence the nature of work
Related Careers
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Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024. Outlook data: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.