Product Quality Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Product Quality Engineer evaluates and tests products and manufacturing systems, to ensure that products are produced that meet quality and performance standards as well as safety and regulatory requirements. Develops product quality standards and monitors production and product testing.
Job Outlook
There were 684 Product Quality Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 21624 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Validation Engineer industry, which includes the Product Quality Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Product Quality Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $96,855.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $94,990.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Product Quality Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $87,152.
Education and Experience
Posted Product Quality Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 79.12% |
| Master's Degree | 14.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.54% |
| Other | 3.88% |
Posted Product Quality Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 26.16% |
| 3 to 5 years | 54.48% |
| 6 to 8 years | 12.87% |
| 9+ years | 6.5% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Product Quality Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Problem Solving (45.07%)
- Communication (39.47%)
- Quality Assurance (34.91%)
- Management (28.32%)
- Operations (26.92%)
- Leadership (21.99%)
- Quality Control (20.47%)
- Investigation (19.06%)
- Customer Service (17.43%)
- Microsoft Excel (17.15%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- First Article Inspections (8.72%)
- Statistical Process Controls (23.62%)
- Quality Management (32.4%)
- Production Part Approval Process (15.74%)
- Failure Mode And Effects Analysis (16.1%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (41.33%)
- ISO 9000 Series (26.93%)
- Auditing (52.5%)
- Advanced Product Quality Planning (14.18%)
- Eight Disciplines Problem Solving (8D) (13.31%)
- Supplier Quality Management (14.64%)
- Six Sigma Methodology (21.61%)
- Quality Management Systems (41.8%)
- Root Cause Corrective Action (9.76%)
- Process Failure Mode And Effects Analysis (PFMEA) (12.71%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Industry Standards (9.73%)
- Root Cause Analysis (29.76%)
- Commissioning (4.44%)
- Process Improvement (21.87%)
- Product Quality (QA/QC) (24.43%)
- Statistics (9.89%)
- Risk Analysis (8.29%)
- Process Control (8.78%)
- Production Process (8.17%)
- New Product Development (23.87%)
- Risk Management (8.81%)
- Mechanical Engineering (10.89%)
- Manufacturing Engineering (8.51%)
- Manufacturing Processes (20.63%)
- Project Management (16.58%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (8%)
- Lean Manufacturing (18.42%)
- Internal Auditing (10.01%)
- ISO 13485 Standard (9.89%)
- External Auditing (8.56%)
- Engineering Drawings (6.34%)
- Corrective And Preventive Action (CAPA) (27.58%)
- Automation (5.77%)
- Data Analysis (16.68%)
- Electrical Engineering (7.87%)
- Aerospace Basic Quality System Standards (14.75%)
- Quality Improvement (13.01%)
- Medical Devices (11.99%)
- Supply Chain (8.38%)
- Statistical Analysis (11.52%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Process Capability (6.93%)
- International Automotive Task Force (5.87%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Root Cause Corrective Action (20.18%)
- Process Failure Mode And Effects Analysis (PFMEA) (26.27%)
- Supplier Quality Management (30.26%)
- Six Sigma Methodology (44.66%)
- Advanced Product Quality Planning (29.3%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Product Quality Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Quality Engineer
- Commissioning Engineer
- Quality Assurance Engineer
- Quality Engineering Intern
- Customer Quality Engineer
- Principal Engineer
- Quality Manager
- Service Quality Engineer
- Program Quality Engineer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Quality Engineering Manager
- Quality Manager (General)
- Quality Assurance Manager
- Supplier Quality Engineer
- Director of Quality Assurance
- Process Quality Engineer
- Quality Assurance Supervisor
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Product Quality Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (1029)
- Jabil (343)
- Lockheed Martin (332)
- Raytheon Technologies (265)
- Jobot (240)
- L3Harris Technologies (229)
- Northrop Grumman (227)
- GPAC (222)
- Amazon (210)
- Kelly Services (199)
North Carolina
- Actalent (34)
- Corning (15)
- Kelly Services (13)
- Randstad (12)
- Insight Global (11)
- GE Aerospace (11)
- Toyota Motor (10)
- Rise Technical Recruitment Ltd (9)
- Belcan (8)
- Eaton Corporation (7)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.