5 Industrial and Systems Engineering Careers

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Staff
Updated August 4, 2020

Industrial and Systems Engineering Careers

  • Ergonomist Engineer
  • Operations Analyst
  • Quality Control Engineer
  • Sales Engineer
  • Project Manager

Industrial and systems engineers are equipped to plan the most efficient means of using essential resources like money, time, energy, machines, people and material to produce a product or a service. There are a number of careers which any student of industrial and systems engineering can pursue after graduation.

Resource: 30 Best Online Master's in Industrial or Systems Engineering Degrees

1. Ergonomist Engineer

This field is concerned with the proper usage of tools to create health ways to minimize injury and stress. Those who pursue a career in ergonomic engineering are tasked with training, advertising, standardizing and creating policies that will guide the use of facilities and company items. They are also responsible for following up on all hazards and creating corporate reports on the safety policies and procedures. Besides these, they are also responsible for developing usage policies for new system, product development plans, and procedures. Lastly, they conduct ergonomics audits and conduct seminars for the staffers.

2. Operations Analyst

They are responsible for developing mathematical modeling techniques, analytical methods and information processes with a bid of predicting the system's future performance. They create the manuals that guide the use of certain tools in the company. They are the staffers responsible for testing operational efficiency and effectiveness. They advise the management on possible improvements in the product development or service provision system. Most importantly they examine assumptions, support system change, and they teach other staffers to gain a better understanding of the firm's operations.

3. Quality Control Engineer

They are tasked with ensuring that the current configuration of the system produces the highest possible quality products or services. They work to minimize the errors and weaknesses brought in by the introduction of new workers. They are responsible for isolating the operational steps and weighing the efficacy of each stage of production. They also develop the quality control policy document that will guide the junior staffers in how they carry out the production processes. Due to their professional background, quality control engineers have the skills it takes to source for new quality procedures and integrates them into the existing production policies.

4. Sales Engineer

Modern day technology has a level of complexity that makes it difficult for sales reps to market and sell them to potential clients successfully. Sales engineers fill this gap by combining their sales and marketing skills with their technical expertise. Working with sales engineers enables a firm to have all the technical or operational questions sufficiently respond to. Their expertise could be in machine, software or computer sales. This line of trade works well for those who are trained engineers and later on take up courses in sales, public relations, digital marketing or communication.

5. Project Manager

Project managers are responsible for planning the timelines and scope of work involved in a project from start to finish. They are also responsible for sourcing and allocating resources based on projected needs. They are in charge of other junior staffers who manage portions of the operations. Most project managers take up a second degree in project management after the initial course on engineer. Besides oversight, they are also responsible for budgeting, planning, and documentation. They are one of the most sought after skill sets due to the project-based nature of most engineers tasks.

To be truly successful in the engineering sector you need both technical as well as professional skills. That's why most industrial and systems engineer careers start out as low-level employees before rising through the ranks to take on more leaderly and managerial functions. This, in turn, equips them to understand both the administrative and operational as well as the oversight roles in the engineering sector.

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