Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic
Set up, operate, or tend heating equipment, such as heat-treating furnaces, flame-hardening machines, induction machines, soaking pits, or vacuum equipment to temper, harden, anneal, or heat treat metal or plastic objects.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 32% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by -9.5% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $48,750
- Job growth to 2035
- -9.5%
- Openings a year
- 1,100
- People doing it (2025)
- 14,400
- 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
- Determine operational methods or procedures
- Read documents or materials to inform work processes
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate industrial processing or production equipment
- Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing
- Inspect completed work or finished products
What the work looks like
- Read production schedules and work orders to determine processing sequences, furnace temperatures, and heat cycle requirements for objects to be heat-treated.
- Determine flame temperatures, current frequencies, heating cycles, and induction heating coils needed, based on degree of hardness required and properties of stock to be treated.
- Record times that parts are removed from furnaces to document that objects have attained specified temperatures for specified times.
- Determine types and temperatures of baths and quenching media needed to attain specified part hardness, toughness, and ductility, using heat-treating charts and knowledge of methods, equipment, and metals.
- Examine parts to ensure metal shades and colors conform to specifications, using knowledge of metal heat-treating.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as improvements in robotics, CNC operated machinery, and other industrial equipment increase efficiency, allowing more output to be produced with the same amount of labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plasticHuman edge, steady, Index 60, +0.7%
- Tire buildersHuman edge, steady, Index 75, +0.8%
- Adhesive bonding machine operators and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 73, +1.3%
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 78, +2.5%
Also known as: Furnace Operator, Heat Treat Operator, Heat Treat Technician, Heat Treater, Batch Heat Treat Operator, Burner, Coating Line Worker, Heat Treat Furnace Operator.
Is this career on your child's list?
Build a free Career Playbook matched to your child, or get a 90-day Action Plan with dated next steps, written for your child by name.
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.