How To Become A Senior Production Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior production engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Andrea Welker Ph.D.

Senior production engineers work in factories and manufacturing plants to monitor and improve various facets of production. They lead the engineering team and work closely with production staff to ensure that all company goals are met, which may be increased efficiency rates, safer working environments, lower attrition, or all of the above.

The typical duties of a senior production engineer include supervising the production processes, developing improvement strategies, identifying risk factors or areas for improvement, and ensuring that all personnel follows safety and health standards. They are also frequently present at meetings with other managers, relevant departments, and company stakeholders.

Having a master's degree in engineering can be a great advantage for this role, but a bachelor's degree is usually the minimum requirement. Furthermore, a senior production engineer must have adequate experience in production, which usually ranges between two to five years, as well as superb analytical and organizational skills.

Senior production engineers earn an average of $118,000 per year. Engineers with more extensive experience, on the other hand, can earn as much as $154,000.

What general advice would you give to a senior production engineer?

Andrea Welker Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villanova University

Be open to new experiences. Find a good mentor. Become a valued employee. Always remember that you are designing something for someone.

ScoreSenior Production EngineerUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $115,075

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 14.93%

Black or African American 4.31%

Hispanic or Latino 10.57%

Unknown 3.89%

White 66.14%

Gender

female 12.16%

male 87.84%

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 senior production engineer

Explore senior production engineer education requirements

Most common senior production engineer degrees

Bachelor's

78.4 %

Master's

10.4 %

Associate

7.7 %

Start to develop specific senior production engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Continuous Improvement	5.92%
Technical Support	5.40%
SR	5.08%
Lean Manufacturing	4.94%
Process Improvement	4.93%

Complete relevant senior production engineer training and internships

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

Research senior production engineer duties and responsibilities

Participate and lead process hazard reviews (DSR/PSSR) and management of change (MOC) initiatives.
Design manufacturing processes and manage layouts of manufacturing plants, tools, jigs, and assembly lines.
Implement a KANBAN system for manufacturing which reduce wasteful production activities and achieve labor reductions.
Release production jobs from ERP system.

Get senior production engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior production engineer. The most common roles before becoming a senior production engineer include production engineer, process engineer team lead and project engineer.

Prepare your senior production engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior production 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 senior production 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 senior production engineer resume templates

Build a professional senior production 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 senior production engineer resume.

Apply for senior production engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior production 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 senior production engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Senior production engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Cons

very little

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

The diversity of tasks, interaction with all stakeholders, continuous learning process, communication. Allows great progression in many technical skills