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

What is a pharmaceutical process engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pharmaceutical process engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $41.17 an hour? That's $85,625 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 30,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePharmaceutical Process EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.7

Avg. Salary $85,625

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.16%

Asian 10.50%

Black or African American 3.55%

Hispanic or Latino 8.68%

Unknown 3.78%

White 73.33%

Gender

female 39.13%

male 60.87%

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 pharmaceutical process engineer

Explore pharmaceutical process engineer education requirements

Most common pharmaceutical process engineer degrees

Bachelor's

61.1 %

High School Diploma

16.7 %

Associate

8.3 %

Start to develop specific pharmaceutical process engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
FDA	35.64%
GMP	29.57%
Pharmaceutical Products	12.77%
FMEA	11.66%
Engineering Support	5.30%

Complete relevant pharmaceutical process engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pharmaceutical 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 pharmaceutical process engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pharmaceutical process engineer resumes.

Research pharmaceutical process engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead and assist maintenance in resolving equipment malfunctions, troubleshoot process problems, and organize and implement preventative maintenance procedures.
Ensure processes are operating within environmental, safety, and FDA regulations.
Qualify new equipment and API to reduce equipment downtime risk and ensure ample supply of starting material.
Improve awareness of CAPA trends that significantly impact manufacturing.

Apply for pharmaceutical process engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a pharmaceutical 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 pharmaceutical process engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Pharmaceutical process engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2022

Pros

Very challenging work because we work for physically ill person's and I think it is not a job it's a service for society from us.

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Cons

The pay grade is low keyed for the type of production we produce. Average salary is $78,540 dollars...