How To Become A Supply Chain Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a supply chain engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Guiping Hu Ph.D.

A supply chain engineer is an individual who manages the overall supply chain and logistics strategy of a company to maximize the process efficiency and productivity. Supply chain engineers must implement the overall supply chain strategy and suggest solutions for process improvements. They negotiate with suppliers, logistic service providers, and other chain partners about the purchase, packaging, and transporting of raw materials. Supply chain engineers can also work in a variety of industries such as manufacturing, aerospace, and energy.

What general advice would you give to a supply chain engineer?

Guiping Hu Ph.D.

Professor and Department Head, Oklahoma State University

People like the diversity and flexibility of being an industrial engineer. You can work on all kinds of problems with your industrial engineering skills. However, if you are only looking for a very narrow area in a specific engineering discipline, industrial engineering may not be right for you since we focus on system efficiency improvement and welfare of the workers.

ScoreSupply Chain EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.6

Avg. Salary $84,229

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 15.26%

Black or African American 4.26%

Hispanic or Latino 10.45%

Unknown 3.88%

White 65.98%

Gender

female 24.68%

male 75.32%

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 supply chain engineer

Explore supply chain engineer education requirements

Most common supply chain engineer degrees

Bachelor's

71.3 %

Master's

21.3 %

Associate

5.7 %

Start to develop specific supply chain engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Supply Chain	17.86%
Lean Six Sigma	8.69%
Supply Chain Planning	7.98%
Continuous Improvement	6.25%
Logistics	5.60%

Complete relevant supply chain engineer training and internships

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

Research supply chain engineer duties and responsibilities

Lead customer PCB and system BOM reviews.
Review and manage the supplier approval process and maintain supplier levels in the ERP system.
Lead the development of subcontract decision matrix, MRP type decision matrix, and scheduling of component work.
Manage construction and implementation of new warehouses which include determining racking configurations, picking automation and integrating WMS systems.

Get supply chain engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a supply chain engineer. The most common roles before becoming a supply chain engineer include industrial engineer, manufacturing engineer team lead and internship.

Prepare your supply chain engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your supply chain 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 supply chain 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 supply chain engineer resume templates

Build a professional supply chain 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 supply chain engineer resume.

Apply for supply chain engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a supply chain 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 supply chain engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

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1 star

Supply chain engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

I like creating and discovering new perspecrive and eliminate waste thinga.

Cons

I dont like people whi dont share of knowledge.

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019