Machines and vehicles
What does a Production Manager do?
Finding out why something has stopped working, and putting it right.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- People all day.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- Responsible for other people.
The facts
- Pay
- $126,060 a year, median
- Industrial Production Managers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
- Several years, and usually a formal qualification.
- Jobs
- +3% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- It pays well against the rest of the work on this site.
What people find hard about it
- Being accountable for other people’s delays
- Targets that move
- Shift cover
Most people arrive here after years on the floor rather than straight from study.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Diagnostics increasingly come from software, but the repair itself and the judgement about what is safe do not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Ask a production manager to walk you through yesterday, hour by hour.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.