Industrial Engineer (General)
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Industrial Engineer devises ways to make production processes more efficient and less wasteful. Uses technology and engineering to help companies and organizations produce products with efficient use of time, resources, and energy.
Job Outlook
There were 1056 Industrial Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 34490 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Industrial Engineer industry, which includes the Industrial Engineer (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Industrial Engineer (General) jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $89,430.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $86,979.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Industrial Engineer (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $77,974.
Education and Experience
Posted Industrial Engineer (General) jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 5.63% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 70.62% |
| Master's Degree | 20.63% |
| Doctoral Degree | 7.16% |
| Other | 6.6% |
Posted Industrial Engineer (General) jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 26.6% |
| 3 to 5 years | 49.05% |
| 6 to 8 years | 13.19% |
| 9+ years | 11.15% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Industrial Engineer (General) positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (37.73%)
- Operations (33.48%)
- Management (30.79%)
- Problem Solving (29.1%)
- Leadership (23.97%)
- Planning (22.77%)
- Microsoft Office (17.96%)
- Microsoft Excel (17.54%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (14.44%)
- Writing (13.51%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Industrial Engineering (26.27%)
- Project Management (29.67%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Electrical Engineering (12.9%)
- Six Sigma Methodology (10.98%)
- Root Cause Analysis (12.02%)
- Manufacturing Engineering (9.81%)
- Quality Management Systems (12.07%)
- Mechanical Engineering (13.86%)
- Procurement (6.08%)
- AutoCAD (15.46%)
- Supply Chain (13.89%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (25.54%)
- Lean Manufacturing (24.39%)
- Process Improvement (22.81%)
- Automation (18.39%)
- Manufacturing Processes (16.93%)
- Quality Management (9.63%)
- Kaizen Methodology (10.25%)
- Auditing (16.37%)
- New Product Development (15.69%)
- Data Analysis (16.46%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Industrial Engineer (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Industrial Engineer
- Quality Engineer
- Continuous Improvement Engineer
- Industrial Engineering Intern
- Product Engineer
- Controls Engineer
- Project Engineer
- Engineer
- Continuous Improvement Leader
- Continuous Improvement Manager
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Manufacturing Engineer (General)
- Manufacturing Product Design Engineer
- Product Quality Engineer
- Process Manager
- Industrial Engineering Manager
- Lean Manufacturing Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Industrial Engineer (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (833)
- Intel (829)
- Ryder (729)
- Northrop Grumman (553)
- The Judge Group (405)
- Randstad (361)
- Boeing (359)
- Raytheon Technologies (346)
- Lockheed Martin (289)
- Lululemon (261)
North Carolina
- Actalent (60)
- HNI (35)
- Randstad (28)
- Ryder (20)
- Wolfspeed (20)
- Leaf At Home LTD (19)
- GE Aerospace (16)
- ABB (11)
- Raytheon Technologies (10)
- GXO Logistics (9)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Engineering Management Analytics Graduate Certificates
- Forest Biomaterials Master's Degrees
- Nonwoven Science and Engineering Graduate Certificates
- Operations Research Master's Degrees
- Textile Engineering Master's Degrees
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.