A manufacturing technician is responsible for working with both the products in the lab and preparing and packaging the final product. This may mean working with huge amounts of raw substances and developing new ways to handle this material all the way to helping to design and maintain electronic measuring devices to weigh and record microscopic amounts of material. Some jobs may require additional assistance with quality control and even in-process testing of production.

As a technician, you may be involved with the calibration and maintenance of the equipment within a lab or production facility as well as part of a team working on designing new equipment or modifying existing equipment. A good understanding of mechanics, federal regulations, weights and measures, mathematics as well as production and manufacturing are all assets for a manufacturing technician.

They also usually works as part of a team with researchers, production engineers, designers and various other technical and production related professionals. Good interpersonal skills, the ability to work under timelines and pressure, as well as excellent communication skills are all critical to a manufacturing technician.

Compensation

A basic level manufacturing technician with a high school degree or associates degree and no experience can expect to start at approximately $21,000 per year. For those manufacturing technicians that have a higher level of education, special certification, or additional experience the salary range is between $25,000 and $31,000 per year.

Manufacturing technician with a Level lV standing, which indicates more than five years experience often earn between $42,000 and $47,000 per year. On-call hours and weekend or evening shift will earn additional salary and are often paid on an hourly basis for this additional time.