5 of the Most Popular Types of Factory Engineer Jobs in 2026

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Top Types Of Factory Engineer Jobs

• Entry Level Manufacturing Engineer

  Salary range: $57,000 - $72,000

  An entry-level manufacturing engineer works to develop and improve the production process for manufacturing goods. Your duties include designing, creating, and testing strategies for production. As a member of an engineering team, you may have to decide which procedure improvement is best for streamlining the production process. You may also work on equipment design and placement, and your responsibilities may include taking steps to improve energy efficiency. As an entry-level engineer, you likely work as part of a team headed by a lead engineer or manager.

• Manufacturing

  Salary range: $42,000 - $60,000

  Manufacturing jobs involve creating new products and goods. Manufacturers use raw materials or separate components to build something entirely new. Whether it’s chemical, physical, or mechanical, as long as you are creating a product, you are working in manufacturing. The only exception is construction, which is considered separate from manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs include making prepackaged food or beverages, creating computers and electronics, and producing clothing. Bakers, printers, tailors, furniture builders, and woodworkers are all considered manufacturers. Most manufacturers work in a factory, mill, or plant, but you can also find work in labs.

• Industrial Engineer

  Salary range: $70,000 - $94,500

  Industrial engineers manage production processes and seek to improve the efficiency of various systems, including machines, people, and products. More specifically, industrial engineering focuses on decreasing the waste of various processes. There are different types and subfields of industrial engineering. For example, operations engineering is considered to be a subdiscipline of industrial engineering and is primarily centered on the analysis and optimization of operational problems using scientific and mathematical methods.

• Manufacturing Engineer

  Salary range: $73,000 - $94,000

  A manufacturing engineer is a specialized engineer who improves product manufacturing processes. As a manufacturing engineer, your primary duties are to design and develop production systems and improve the tools and systems within the manufacturing process. You will use computer software such as CAD to create, modify, and test the products and manufacturing processes.

• Industrial Engineering

  Salary range: $70,000 - $94,500

  Industrial engineering is an engineering specialty that combines physical and social sciences with engineering principles. This field of engineering focuses on analyzing and optimizing manufacturing production processes to create more productive and profitable systems. Industrial engineers research a system’s current state, design improvement plans, and eliminate any waste of manpower, energy, money, and materials.