How To Become A Junior Process Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a junior process engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Sanchari Chowdhury Ph.D.

Junior process engineers require listening skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, product quality, and AutoCAD skills and training. They may need to lead and assist maintenance in resolving equipment malfunctions, troubleshooting process problems, and organizing and implementing preventative maintenance procedures.

Here, they can work in a vast range of industries, such as agriculture, automotive, biotechnical, chemical, food, material development, mining, nuclear, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and software development.

This role requires candidates to have a bachelor's degree in chemical, manufacturing, or industrial engineering. They may be qualified to lead teams of engineers or related workers if they have years of experience and show leadership skills.

Junior process engineers make about $49,056 per year and $23.58 per hour.

What general advice would you give to a junior process engineer?

Dr. Sanchari Chowdhury Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Chemical engineers are sought after by a wide range of companies, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, biomedical, food, nuclear and other power generation industries, delicate and heavy chemicals, and environmental protection, to name a few. It will help if you are looking to work for a company that allows them to narrow your focus on the area of chemical engineering that interests you the most. During this uncertain time of the pandemic, we may not be seeing as many as job opportunities as we would like to see. However, it is also true that local recruiters are looking to hire people from within the state to avoid any complications due to travel. So, looking for opportunities within the country is a good option. When it comes to job applications, persistence is the key. Don't get discouraged if you don't hear back after five applications; sometimes, it takes more than fifty applications before you land a job. If your plan includes graduate studies, this may also be a good time to do that.

ScoreJunior Process EngineerUS Average

Salary

5.4

Avg. Salary $69,606

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 14.12%

Black or African American 4.57%

Hispanic or Latino 11.21%

Unknown 3.92%

White 66.01%

Gender

female 19.50%

male 80.50%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a junior process engineer

Explore junior process engineer education requirements

Most common junior process engineer degrees

Bachelor's

74.3 %

Master's

10.0 %

Associate

8.6 %

Start to develop specific junior process engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
P Id	8.40%
Lean Manufacturing	7.41%
Sigma	7.26%
Autocad	6.47%
Instrumentation Diagrams	6.34%

Complete relevant junior process engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New junior process engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a junior process engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real junior process engineer resumes.

Research junior process engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead and assist maintenance in resolving equipment malfunctions, troubleshoot process problems, and organize and implement preventative maintenance procedures.
Insure compliance with ISO and OSHA regulations.
Monitor and control programmable logic controller (PLC).
Maintain responsibility for manufacturing large-scale inorganic chemical synthesis.

Prepare your junior process engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your junior process engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a junior process engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable junior process engineer resume templates

Build a professional junior process engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your junior process engineer resume.

Apply for junior process engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a junior process engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do junior process engineers rate their job?

-/5

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Junior process engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

Being on the field doing running inspections and learning from the technicians

Cons

Being expose to bad weather that compromise the safety of operations.

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019