Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Food cooking machine operators and tenders
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 51% 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 -0.3% by 2035, expected to shrink.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $41,590
- Job growth to 2035
- -0.3%
- Openings a year
- 3,700
- People doing it (2025)
- 31,200
- 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
- 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
- Operate industrial processing or production equipment
- Monitor equipment operation
- Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas
What the work looks like
- Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
- Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
- Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
- Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
- Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as an expected increase in the adoption of automation technologies, such as robotics, makes food production processes more labor efficient.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Slaughterers and meat packersHuman edge, steady, Index 71, +2.0%
- Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazersHuman edge, steady, Index 67, +2.4%
- Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plasticHuman edge, steady, Index 60, +0.7%
- Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, woodHuman edge, steady, Index 57, -1.0%
Also known as: Fryer Operator, Kettle Fry Cook Operator, Machine Operator, Retort Operator, Cooker Operator, Food Production Worker, Mogul Operator, Oven Operator.
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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.