Industrial Engineer vs Production Supervisor

On pay, industrial engineers come out ahead by about $16k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $67k–$112k against $57k–$90k for production supervisors. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates. By seniority and country: industrial engineer salary and production supervisor salary.

On skills, they are close to the same job under two titles. Postings ask for largely the same things, and the difference is mostly emphasis. The skills both sets of postings want most are Lean / Six Sigma, Supply Chain, Operations, Quality Control, SAP.

Yes, and the numbers say how far along you already are: a typical industrial engineer profile covers 50% of what production supervisor postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 12–24 mo. The route page lists the exact skills that make up the rest.

Going the other way, a typical production supervisor profile covers 68% of what industrial engineer postings ask for. Our estimate for the move is 9–16 mo. The two directions are not symmetric: production supervisor to industrial engineer is the easier move, 68% against 50%. The route page has the gap itemized.

Right now our board has 140 industrial engineer openings and 142 production supervisor openings, each linking to the original posting. The board refreshes every night, so the counts move with the market. Hiring the most industrial engineers at the moment: Rocketlab (10), Spacex (9), Abbott (6). For production supervisors: Carvana (7), Hellofresh (7), Jobup (6).