Talent Maps / Dallas-Fort Worth / Industrial and Manufacturing Engineers

Dallas-Fort Worth Industrial and Manufacturing Engineer Talent Map (2026)

What industrial and manufacturing engineers earn in Dallas-Fort Worth, which plants and headquarters employ them, where they work and the new factories competing for them.

Hiring manufacturing engineers in DFW?

A talent map shows where a group of professionals works, what they are paid and who else is trying to hire them. This one covers industrial and manufacturing engineers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area. Pay figures come from the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey (May 2025), and the demand picture uses company, Dallas Fed and real estate data published in 2026. Our engineering recruiters update it as new data comes out. See also our DFW mechanical, controls and aerospace talent maps.

$105,640Median industrial engineer pay in Dallas-Fort WorthBLS, May 2025

$166,050+What the top 10% of DFW industrial engineers earnBLS, May 2025

28,510Industrial engineers employed in TexasProjections Central, 2024

2,390Projected industrial engineering job openings a year in Texas through 2034Projections Central

312,700Manufacturing jobs in the DFW metroBLS, August 2026 (preliminary)

17.9M sq ftIndustrial space absorbed in DFW in the first half of 2026, the most of any US marketJLL

Industrial engineer salaries in Dallas-Fort Worth

The median industrial engineer in Dallas-Fort Worth earns $105,640 a year, about $3,200 more than the national median of $102,440 and a little above Texas ($104,560). DFW pays especially well at the entry level: its 10th percentile, $77,640, is more than $10,000 above the Texas figure.

Annual pay percentile	DFW metro	Texas	United States
10th percentile	$77,640	$67,490	$74,370
25th percentile	$93,020	$86,410	$83,600
Median	$105,640	$104,560	$102,440
75th percentile	$132,830	$133,490	$129,250
90th percentile	$166,050	$168,670	$159,860

Industrial Engineers (SOC 17-2112), which includes most manufacturing engineers. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2025, via O*NET OnLine.

Related roles in DFW: industrial production managers earn a median of $132,990, logisticians $76,510 and industrial engineering technicians $62,010. In the Sherman-Denison metro, where the new chip fabs are, the median industrial engineer earns $97,450, and in Houston $111,690. Read our guide on how to hire a manufacturing engineer.

Where DFW’s industrial and manufacturing engineers work

Automotive and heavy equipment

GM’s Arlington Assembly plant employed more than 5,400 people as of 2024 and builds more than 1,350 vehicles a day. Peterbilt builds all of its Class 8 conventional trucks in Denton.

Aerospace and defense

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 plant in Fort Worth employs 19,000, and Bell is building a $632 million parts plant at AllianceTexas. Qarbon Aerospace builds aerostructures in Red Oak. See our DFW aerospace talent map.

Semiconductors and electronics

Texas Instruments is headquartered in Dallas, with fabs in Richardson and Sherman. GlobalWafers makes silicon wafers in Sherman.

Wistron and Foxlink opened AI hardware plants at Alliance in July 2026, and LITEON is building a $919 million campus in McKinney.

Consumer goods, headquarters and logistics

Kimberly-Clark is headquartered in Irving and PepsiCo Foods North America, including Frito-Lay, in Plano. These headquarters hire industrial engineers for supply chain and operations roles.

Amazon is building a $200 million, 1.7 million square foot operations facility in Cleburne with up to 1,000 jobs.

Where the talent sits: DFW submarkets

AllianceTexas and north Fort Worth

ElectronicsAerospaceLogistics

AllianceTexas counts 602 companies and 73,134 direct jobs, including Wistron, Foxlink and Bell’s new plant. MP Materials is building next door in Northlake.

Arlington and Grand Prairie

AutomotiveDefense

GM Arlington, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and the industrial parks along I-20 and I-30.

Richardson, Plano and McKinney

SemiconductorsHeadquarters

TI’s Richardson fabs, PepsiCo Foods North America in Plano and LITEON’s new McKinney campus.

Denton and Sherman

TrucksSemiconductors

Peterbilt in Denton, and TI and GlobalWafers in Sherman, about an hour north of Dallas.

South metro

AerostructuresDistribution

Qarbon in Red Oak, Amazon’s new Cleburne site and the warehouse corridors south of Dallas and Fort Worth.

What’s driving demand for industrial engineers in DFW

New factories. MP Materials is investing more than $1.25 billion in a rare earth magnet campus in Northlake with more than 1,500 manufacturing and engineering jobs, commissioning from 2028. LITEON’s McKinney campus will bring about 600 jobs.
Chips. TI plans up to four Sherman fabs and 3,000 jobs, and GlobalWafers plans to grow to up to 650 jobs by the end of 2028.
AI hardware. Wistron’s Alliance plant, which assembles Nvidia AI supercomputers, opened in July 2026 with more than 800 jobs planned.
Warehousing and logistics. JLL reports 31.2 million square feet of industrial space under development in DFW, with vacancy at 9.3% in the second quarter of 2026.
A mixed outlook. DFW manufacturing employment was down 0.5% from a year earlier in August 2026, but the Dallas Fed’s September survey showed Texas factory production and hiring both picking up.

The talent pipeline

UT Arlington. UTA’s Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering offers an ABET-accredited BS in industrial engineering, plus master’s degrees and a PhD. More than half of its undergraduates complete a co-op or internship.
East Texas A&M. Formerly Texas A&M-Commerce, about an hour northeast of Dallas, it offers an ABET-accredited BS in industrial engineering.
SMU. The Lyle School’s operations research and engineering management department offers a BS in management science and master’s degrees in engineering management, systems engineering and operations research.
UNT and TSTC. UNT offers mechanical engineering technology and a manufacturing engineering technologies certificate, and TSTC’s Red Oak campus teaches machining, welding and advanced manufacturing.
Growth. Texas is projected to grow from 28,510 industrial engineers in 2024 to 34,290 in 2034, a 20% increase against 11% nationally.

What this means if you’re hiring

Entry-level pay is high. DFW’s 10th percentile is $77,640. Offers below that will struggle.
New plants are staffing at once. Alliance, Northlake, McKinney and Sherman will all compete for the same lean, process and quality engineers through 2028.
Hire for the industry. Semiconductor, aerospace and automotive processes are different. Engineers move between them, but it takes time to ramp up.
Use the co-op programs. UTA’s co-op students are the cheapest way to build a pipeline.

Need manufacturing engineers in Dallas-Fort Worth?

Apollo Technical has recruited engineers since 2010. Our recruiting teams place industrial, manufacturing, process and quality engineers on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire basis.

Call 214.257.7733 or see our Dallas engineering recruiters page.

Hire manufacturing engineers

Frequently asked questions

How much do industrial engineers make in Dallas-Fort Worth?

The median industrial engineer salary in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro is $105,640 a year, according to May 2025 BLS data. The middle half earn between $93,020 and $132,830, and the top 10% earn $166,050 or more.

How many manufacturing jobs are there in DFW?

The DFW metro had about 312,700 manufacturing jobs in August 2026, according to preliminary BLS data.

Which new factories are hiring in DFW?

The largest include MP Materials in Northlake, LITEON in McKinney, Wistron and Foxlink at AllianceTexas, Bell’s new Alliance plant and the Texas Instruments and GlobalWafers plants in Sherman.

Sources (14)