Side-by-side distribution
Manufacturing Engineer
$150,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.4%
- Live roles
- 892
Quality Control
$55,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 32.4%
- Live roles
- 71
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer, Production Model Post-Training
Software Engineer, Production Engineering
Manufacturing Test Engineer, AI Compute Infrastructure - Stargate
Principal Production Engineer
Software Engineer, Production Engineering
Staff Site Reliability Engineer, Production Engineering
Manufacturing Electrical Test Engineer
Production Engineer, Compute (GPU)
Production Engineer, IaaS
Manufacturing Software Test Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Technician
Line Maintenance Quality Control Inspector - $800 monthly stipend + $10,000 Bonus!
Technician, Quality Control
Quality Control Inspector
Quality Control Inspector
Repair & Quality Control Technician
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 131 |
Relativity Space
|
$152,000 | 27 |
Archer
|
$171,100 | 15 |
Hadrian Automation
|
$165,000 | 12 |
Rocket Lab Corporation
|
$133,750 | 10 |
mthree Recruiting Portal
|
$54,000 | 9 |
SpaceX
|
$108,750 | 8 |
Databricks
|
$216,104 | 7 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Trexon
|
$45,240 | 6 |
|
Murray Company Mechanical Contractors
|
$93,600 | 2 |
|
Xometry
|
$81,750 | 2 |
| IE Industrial Electric Manufacturing | $85,998 | 1 |
|
Breeze Airways™
|
$81,120 | 1 |
|
F.H. Paschen
|
$80,000 | 1 |
|
Osmo
|
$74,000 | 1 |
|
TechFlow, Inc.
|
$65,000 | 1 |
Manufacturing Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $237,500 | 7 |
| Austin | $211,000 | 6 |
| San Francisco | $190,500 | 22 |
| Chicago | $181,250 | 8 |
| New York | $171,500 | 17 |
| Boston | $158,500 | 8 |
| Atlanta | $146,500 | 7 |
| Los Angeles | $146,250 | 36 |
Manufacturing Engineer vs Quality Control: which pays more?
The median for Manufacturing Engineer is $150,000 per year (typically $125,875–$170,000), versus $55,000 for Quality Control ($45,760–$74,000). That puts Manufacturing Engineer about 173% 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.