Industrial Plant Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Industrial Plant Engineer plans, designs, installs, and maintains industrial production plant facilities. Estimates production costs and performs feasibility studies in order to advise management on investment in new plants.
Job Outlook
There were 86 Industrial Plant Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 3689 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Industrial Engineer industry, which includes the Industrial Plant Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Industrial Plant Engineer 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 $86,029.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $89,964.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Industrial Plant Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $77,850.
Education and Experience
Posted Industrial Plant Engineer 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 | 4.72% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 71.27% |
| Master's Degree | 8.19% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0.98% |
| Other | 11.2% |
Posted Industrial Plant Engineer 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 | 23.33% |
| 3 to 5 years | 59.06% |
| 6 to 8 years | 10.14% |
| 9+ years | 7.47% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Industrial Plant Engineer 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 (52.29%)
- Communication (43.75%)
- Management (40.5%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (33.88%)
- Problem Solving (32.5%)
- Leadership (22.2%)
- Planning (21.31%)
- Writing (20.95%)
- Budgeting (18.49%)
- Analytical Skills (15.99%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Project Management (43.97%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Optics (3.82%)
- Automation (5.73%)
- Chemical Engineering (9.3%)
- Wastewater (13.73%)
- Microsoft Project (13.7%)
- Facility Operations (12.52%)
- Absorption Refrigeration (9.52%)
- Equipment Maintenance (13.15%)
- Purchasing (17.3%)
- Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (9.73%)
- Industrial Engineering (9.94%)
- Economics (12.18%)
- Cost Control (12.33%)
- Process Engineering (8.3%)
- AutoCAD (12%)
- New Product Development (5.03%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (17.73%)
- Accounting (15.18%)
- Safety Training (12.48%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (8.61%)
- Lean Manufacturing (7.67%)
- Computer Science (4.15%)
- Electrical Engineering (12.21%)
- Engineering Support (15.39%)
- Project Implementation (13.18%)
- Regulatory Compliance (17.42%)
- Programmable Logic Controllers (9.48%)
- Boilers (11.82%)
- Project Engineering (18.97%)
- Preventive Maintenance (9.97%)
- HVAC (15.73%)
- Commissioning (6.91%)
- Process Improvement (10.48%)
- Machinery (9.33%)
- Mechanical Engineering (22.97%)
- Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Points (HACCP) (12.85%)
- Food Safety And Sanitation (18.09%)
- Root Cause Analysis (11.7%)
- Technical Support (14.76%)
- Environment Health And Safety (8.67%)
- Procurement (6.94%)
- Occupational Safety And Health (1.36%)
- Distributed Control Systems (3.33%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Fiber Light Identifiers (3.73%)
- Optical Test Equipment (3.73%)
- Optical Power Meters (3.73%)
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.
- Optical Test Equipment (100%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Industrial Plant Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Plant Engineer
- Project Engineer
- Power Plant Engineer
- ISP Engineer
- Engineer
- Plant Operations Engineer
- Packaging Engineer
- Engineering Intern
- Operations Engineer
- Plant Process 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.
- Industrial Engineer (General)
- Engineering Manager (General)
- General Engineering Technician / Technologist
- Mechanical Project Engineer
- Manufacturing Project Engineer
- Director of Engineering
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Industrial Plant Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Stratas Foods (384)
- The Judge Group (152)
- Spectrum (120)
- Prime Healthcare Services (87)
- Actalent (50)
- Disability Solutions (49)
- Kaiser Permanente (45)
- Windstream (41)
- UPS (38)
- Standardaero (27)
North Carolina
- Spectrum (10)
- The Judge Group (8)
- Smithfield Foods (5)
- Pfizer (4)
- UPS (4)
- Biogen (3)
- Novant Health (2)
- Smithfield (2)
- LP Building Solutions (2)
- Orion Talent (2)
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.