Career Explorer Production
Human edge, growing
Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders
Operate or tend equipment such as cooling and freezing units, refrigerators, batch freezers, and freezing tunnels, to cool or freeze products, food, blood plasma, and chemicals.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 90% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +5.9% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $41,330
- Job growth to 2035
- +5.9%
- Openings a year
- 800
- People doing it (2025)
- 7,700
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance
- Set up equipment
- Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Monitor equipment operation
- Operate pumping systems or equipment
- Maintain operational records
What the work looks like
- Record temperatures, amounts of materials processed, or test results on report forms.
- Monitor pressure gauges, ammeters, flowmeters, thermometers, or products, and adjust controls to maintain specified conditions, such as feed rate, product consistency, temperature, air pressure, and machine speed.
- Read dials and gauges on panel control boards to ascertain temperatures, alkalinities, and densities of mixtures, and turn valves to obtain specified mixtures.
- Measure or weigh specified amounts of ingredients or materials, and load them into tanks, vats, hoppers, or other equipment.
- Adjust machine or freezer speed and air intake to obtain desired consistency and amount of product.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Packaging and filling machine operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +4.1%
- Construction laborersHuman edge, growing, Index 93, +7.3%
- Aircraft service attendantsHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +5.6%
- Helpers--installation, maintenance, and repair workersHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +5.3%
Also known as: Freezer Operator, Freezer Person, Refrigeration Operator, Refrigeration Technician, Certified Refrigeration Operator, Compressor Operator, Engine Room Operator, Ice Cream Maker.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.