Career Explorer Management
Changing shape
Industrial production managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the work activities and resources necessary for manufacturing products in accordance with cost, quality, and quantity specifications.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 47% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +2.6% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and creative vision.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $126,060
- Job growth to 2035
- +2.6%
- Openings a year
- 17,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 252,000
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Implement procedures or processes
- Communicate environmental or sustainability information
- Communicate with others about operational plans or activities
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Direct organizational operations, activities, or procedures
- Monitor operations to ensure adequate performance
- Supervise personnel activities
What the work looks like
- Set and monitor product standards, examining samples of raw products or directing testing during processing, to ensure finished products are of prescribed quality.
- Direct or coordinate production, processing, distribution, or marketing activities of industrial organizations.
- Review processing schedules or production orders to make decisions concerning inventory requirements, staffing requirements, work procedures, or duty assignments, considering budgetary limitations and time constraints.
- Review operations and confer with technical or administrative staff to resolve production or processing problems.
- Hire, train, evaluate, or discharge staff or resolve personnel grievances.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Construction managersGrows with AI, Index 66, +9.1%
- Facilities managersGrows with AI, Index 65, +4.6%
- Computer and information systems managersGrows with AI, Index 61, +15.8%
- Athletic trainersGrows with AI, Index 81, +12.7%
Also known as: Assembly Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Plant Manager, Production Manager, Quality Assurance Director (QA Director), Quality Assurance Manager (QA Manager), Quality Control Manager (QC Manager), Quality Manager.
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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.