Side-by-side distribution
Manufacturing Engineer
$124,900
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 40.3%
- Live roles
- 3,335
Quality Control
$25.00/hr
per hour · USD
- Disclosing
- 35.1%
- Live roles
- 348
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer, Production Model Post-Training
Manufacturing Engineer III (Controls Technician)
Software Engineer, Manufacturing Infrastructure
Risk and Pnl Production Support Engineer
Production Support Engineer - Trading Systems
Manufacturing Engineer - Data Center Hardware
Product Engineer - Manufacturing Operations
Manufacturing Quality Engineer, Data Center Power & Cooling
Internal Acceleration, Engineer (Production)
Internal Acceleration, Research Engineer (Production)
Highest-paying jobs
Quality Control Inspector Lead
Quality Control Inspector II - NCR
Quality Control Inspector - Systems
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
QC Highway/Bridge Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Technician (Machining)
Aircraft Warehouse Quality Control Inspector
Aircraft Quality Control Inspector
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$167,000 | 191 |
Northrop Grumman
|
$110,650 | 82 |
Blue Origin
|
$110,222 | 42 |
SpaceX
|
$115,000 | 37 |
Relativity Space
|
$130,000 | 35 |
Applied Materials
|
$93,250 | 28 |
| GV GE Vernova | $109,200 | 21 |
Abbott
|
$106,700 | 20 |
Trexon
Osmo
Flex
Danaher
PPG
Manufacturing Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $201,600 | 45 |
| New York | $174,000 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $152,500 | 53 |
| Atlanta | $142,750 | 10 |
| Denver | $140,000 | 5 |
| Seattle | $134,471 | 51 |
| Chicago | $130,000 | 8 |
| Singapore | $124,800 | 5 |
| Austin | $114,000 | 29 |
| Toronto | $108,300 | 3 |
Quality Control salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | $100,878 | 4 |
| New York | $47,060 | 5 |
Manufacturing Engineer vs Quality Control: which pays more?
The median for Manufacturing Engineer is $124,900 per year (typically $99,950–$157,554), versus $25.00/hr for Quality Control ($22.06/hr–$29.94/hr). That puts Manufacturing Engineer about 140% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Manufacturing Engineer and Quality Control are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.