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 283 Industrial Engineer (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 8357 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 2016:

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 $96,477.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $96,898.

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 $87,955.

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	0%
Bachelor's Degree	73.66%
Master's Degree	23.41%
Doctoral Degree	4.02%
Other	5.22%

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	28.74%
3 to 5 years	44.59%
6 to 8 years	15.73%
9+ years	10.95%

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.

Operations (42.3%)
Communication (36.81%)
Problem Solving (32.69%)
Management (32.3%)
Planning (26.72%)
Leadership (24.95%)
Microsoft Excel (20.34%)
Microsoft Office (19.42%)
Microsoft PowerPoint (13.44%)
Writing (13.2%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Continuous Improvement Process (37.16%)
AutoCAD (25.9%)
Industrial Engineering (62.42%)
Lean Manufacturing (33.58%)
Project Management (29.13%)
Process Improvement (29.24%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Workflow Management (20.02%)
Supply Chain (16.78%)
Six Sigma Methodology (14.94%)
Systems Engineering (10.43%)
Data Analysis (17.54%)
Computer-Aided Design (11.56%)
Automation (15.76%)
Capacity Planning (8.81%)
Cost Reduction (10.57%)
Electrical Engineering (7.8%)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (7.75%)
Warehousing (9.81%)
Mechanical Engineering (11.83%)
Manufacturing Engineering (17.64%)
Manufacturing Processes (21.68%)
Production Process (12.12%)
Value Stream Mapping (10.16%)
Tooling (7.75%)
Material Handling (8.44%)
Process Flow Diagrams (9.47%)
New Product Development (10.36%)
Balancing (Ledger/Billing) (10.24%)
Kaizen Methodology (9.19%)
Lean Principles (8.36%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Work Measurement (6.67%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Continuous Improvement Process (100%)

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
Industrial Engineering Intern
Industrialization Engineer
Industrial Sales Engineer
Manufacturing Industrial Engineer
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineer
Industrial Controls Engineer
Principal Engineer
Field Industrial Engineer
Continuous Improvement Engineer

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.

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

Raytheon Technologies (328)
Actalent (222)
Black & Veatch (221)
Vertiv (177)
Northrop Grumman (108)
Insight Global (104)
Lockheed Martin (101)
Kiewit Corporation (98)
GE Aerospace (98)
Ryder (89)

North Carolina

Black & Veatch (20)
Actalent (11)
Biogen (9)
Lowe's (7)
Gaston County Schools (7)
Smithfield Foods (6)
Arinc International Of Canada Ulc (5)
GE Aerospace (5)
Siemens (5)
GXO Logistics (4)

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!

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.

Engineering