Production Engineer
Career Area: Engineering
Occupation Group: Mechanical and Related Engineers
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Production Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $84,412
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $85,768
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Combines knowledge of manufacturing technology and engineering sciences with management theory. Designs the production steps, defines and monitors resources needed, and evaluates efficiency of the overall process.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 104 | +10.6% |
| Nationwide | 3001 | +8.3% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Production Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
- Manufacturing Processes: Experience working within and designing manufacturing processes to combine raw materials or components into a final product.
- Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
- Python: Python is a widely used high-level programming language for general-purpose programming, created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991.
- Technical Support: Technical support (often shortened to tech support) refers to a plethora of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other informatic, electronic or mechanical goods.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Production Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Process Engineering: Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control, optimization and Intensification of chemical, physical, and biological processes.
- Process Safety: Working experience of Process Safety, which is a blend of engineering and management skills focused on preventing catastrophic accidents and near misses, particularly structural collapse, explosions, fires and toxic releases associated with loss of containment of energy or dangerous substances such as chemicals and petroleum products.
- Packaging: Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use.
- Production Management: Working experience of Production Management. Production Management refers to the application of management principles to the production function in a factory. In other words, production management involves application of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the production process.
- Process Control: Process control is an engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms and algorithms for maintaining the output of a specific process within a desired range.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 30% |
| 3 to 5 years | 50% |
| 6 to 8 years | 13% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Production Engineer
- Senior Production Engineer
- Production Test Engineer
- Production Support Engineer
- Production Engineer I
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