Career Explorer Engineering and architecture
Grows with AI
Industrial engineers
Design, develop, test, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes, including human work factors, quality control, inventory control, logistics and material flow, cost analysis, and production coordination.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 39% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it very high), and US jobs are projected to change by +12.4% by 2035, much faster than average. The work leans on creative vision.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $102,440
- Job growth to 2035
- +12.4%
- Openings a year
- 23,100
- People doing it (2025)
- 365,000
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Research technology designs or applications
- Document technical designs, procedures, or activities
- Advise others on business or operational matters
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Develop research plans or methodologies
- Advise others on workplace health or safety issues
- Train others on operational or work procedures
What the work looks like
- Estimate production costs, cost saving methods, and the effects of product design changes on expenditures for management review, action, and control.
- Plan and establish sequence of operations to fabricate and assemble parts or products and to promote efficient utilization.
- Analyze statistical data and product specifications to determine standards and establish quality and reliability objectives of finished product.
- Confer with clients, vendors, staff, and management personnel regarding purchases, product and production specifications, manufacturing capabilities, or project status.
- Communicate with management and user personnel to develop production and design standards.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as increasingly complex manufacturing processes, logistics and supply chains drive demand for industrial engineers to design and develop them.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Agricultural engineersGrows with AI, Index 66, +6.9%
- Electrical engineersGrows with AI, Index 59, +9.9%
- Architectural and civil draftersGrows with AI, Index 46, +5.2%
- Marine engineers and naval architectsGrows with AI, Index 51, +6.7%
Also known as: Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Process Engineer, Project Engineer, Ergonomist, Human Factors Engineer, Occupational Ergonomist, Quality Assurance Engineer.
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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.