Plastics Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Plastics Engineer designs and develops plastics materials and molds and products made with plastic. Researches and develops new plastics materials and production processes.

Job Outlook

There were 16 Plastics Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 524 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Materials Engineer industry, which includes the Plastics Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Plastics 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 $112,999.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,999.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Plastics Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $102,338.

Education and Experience

Posted Plastics 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	0%
Bachelor's Degree	72.71%
Master's Degree	15.27%
Doctoral Degree	4.58%
Other	3.44%

Posted Plastics 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	15.79%
3 to 5 years	64.74%
6 to 8 years	12.63%
9+ years	6.84%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Plastics 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.

Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (39.12%)
Problem Solving (38.36%)
Operations (32.25%)
Communication (23.28%)
Management (20.04%)
Innovation (19.08%)
Leadership (18.51%)
Planning (18.32%)
Customer Service (16.79%)
Research (15.46%)

Defining Skills

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

Thermoplastics (19.41%)
Injection Molding (37.84%)
Plastics Engineering (35.88%)
Plastic Materials (57.65%)
Extrusion (29.8%)
Project Management (27.65%)
Manufacturing Processes (31.37%)
New Product Development (32.75%)
Molding (Manufacturing Process) (33.73%)
Tooling (36.67%)

Necessary Skills

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

Milling (9.8%)
Tooling Design (15.49%)
Process Validation (4.51%)
Advanced Product Quality Planning (7.84%)
Computer-Aided Design (17.84%)
Six Sigma Methodology (15.1%)
Continuous Improvement Process (20.59%)
AutoCAD (15.29%)
Medical Devices (9.22%)
Auditing (4.12%)
Automation (13.33%)
Experimental Design (6.47%)
Casting (7.45%)
Automotive Industry (1.76%)
Lathes (9.8%)
SolidWorks (CAD) (20.59%)
Benchmarking (8.82%)
Welding (7.65%)
Engineering Management (4.71%)
Development Environment (5.29%)
Fabrication (4.51%)
Plastics Extrusion (18.24%)
Process Engineering (26.47%)
Design For Manufacturability (7.25%)
Grinding Machine (10%)
Supplier Quality Management (8.04%)
Data Analysis (6.67%)
Cost Reduction (8.24%)
Milestones (Project Management) (7.65%)
Mechanical Engineering (27.25%)
Debugging (8.63%)
Geometry (2.35%)
Chemical Engineering (6.08%)
Manufacturing Engineering (10.39%)
Intravenous Therapy (8.82%)
Process Capability (2.94%)
Purchasing (6.67%)
Polymer Engineering (12.55%)
Lean Manufacturing (23.92%)
Process Development (15.49%)
Process Optimization (6.86%)
Polyvinyl Chloride (13.14%)
Machining (13.33%)
Production Part Approval Process (7.25%)
Process Improvement (14.9%)
Root Cause Analysis (10.98%)
Product Design (10.39%)
Production Process (15.1%)
Material Selection (6.86%)
Statistical Methods (7.06%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Plastics Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Plastics Process Engineer
Plastics Manufacturing Engineer
Tool and Die Engineer
Assembly Process Engineer
Extrusion Engineer
Principal Engineer
Extrusion Process Engineer
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Engineering Intern

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 Plastics Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

GPAC (64)
Ford (34)
Diedre Moire (14)
University of Massachusetts (11)
Baxter International (10)
Airborn (9)
Honda (8)
Actalent (7)
Lucid Motors (7)
Jobot (7)

North Carolina

Hayward Industries (4)
Corning (2)
Newell Agency (2)
TE Connectivity (1)
Ford (1)
Newell Brands (1)
Plp (1)
Diedre Moire (1)

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