Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders
Operate or tend food or tobacco roasting, baking, or drying equipment, including hearth ovens, kiln driers, roasters, char kilns, and vacuum drying equipment.
More resilient than most: more resilient than 62% 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 +0.4% by 2035, slower than average.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $44,810
- Job growth to 2035
- +0.4%
- Openings a year
- 2,500
- People doing it (2025)
- 21,600
- Usual route in
- No formal credential, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance
- Read documents or materials to inform work processes
- Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Monitor equipment operation
- Inspect completed work or finished products
- Evaluate production inputs or outputs
What the work looks like
- Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
- Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
- Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
- Observe temperature, humidity, pressure gauges, and product samples and adjust controls, such as thermostats and valves, to maintain prescribed operating conditions for specific stages.
- Observe flow of materials and listen for machine malfunctions, such as jamming or spillage, and notify supervisors if corrective actions fail.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as industrial bakeries adopt automated equipment, robotics, and other technologies that will make bread production more efficient.
- Fewer of these jobs, as food manufacturers adopt automated equipment, robotics, and other technologies that will make food production more efficient.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 76, +3.4%
- Packaging and filling machine operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +4.1%
- Food batchmakersHuman edge, growing, Index 85, +6.5%
- Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmersHuman edge, growing, Index 88, +5.7%
Also known as: Coffee Roaster, Machine Operator, Roaster, Roasterman, Bean Roaster, Line Operator, Oven Operator, Oven Technician.
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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.