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Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists

$99,380 Median Wage (2023)

25,200 Projected job openings (2023-2033)

12.20% Projected growth (2023-2033)

Design objects, facilities, and environments to optimize human well-being and overall system performance, applying theory, principles, and data regarding the relationship between humans and respective technology. Investigate and analyze characteristics of human behavior and performance as it relates to the use of technology.

Experience Requirements Overview

Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Education, Training and Experience

Required Level of Education: Master's Degree

Related Work Experience: N.A.

On-Site or In-Plant Training: N.A.

On-the-Job Training: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year

Detailed Work Activities

Prepare proposal documents.
Train personnel on proper operational procedures.
Investigate safety of work environment.
Recommend technical design or process changes to improve efficiency, quality, or performance.
Research human performance or health factors related to engineering or design activities.
Estimate technical or resource requirements for development or production projects.
Estimate time requirements for development or production projects.
Advise others on health and safety issues.
Document design or operational test results.
Create models of engineering designs or methods.
Test performance of electrical, electronic, mechanical, or integrated systems or equipment.
Determine operational criteria or specifications.
Inspect facilities or sites to determine if they meet specifications or standards.
Devise research or testing protocols.
Prepare procedural documents.
Assess product or process usefulness.
Confer with technical personnel to prepare designs or operational plans.
Analyze operational data to evaluate operations, processes or products.
Develop technical methods or processes.

Work Values

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Working Conditions

Recognition

Relationships

Support

Independence

Tasks

Collect data through direct observation of work activities or witnessing the conduct of tests.
Conduct interviews or surveys of users or customers to collect information on topics, such as requirements, needs, fatigue, ergonomics, or interfaces.
Advocate for end users in collaboration with other professionals, including engineers, designers, managers, or customers.
Inspect work sites to identify physical hazards.
Prepare reports or presentations summarizing results or conclusions of human factors engineering or ergonomics activities, such as testing, investigation, or validation.
Recommend workplace changes to improve health and safety, using knowledge of potentially harmful factors, such as heavy loads or repetitive motions.
Perform functional, task, or anthropometric analysis, using tools, such as checklists, surveys, videotaping, or force measurement.
Provide technical support to clients through activities, such as rearranging workplace fixtures to reduce physical hazards or discomfort or modifying task sequences to reduce cycle time.
Assess the user-interface or usability characteristics of products.
Establish system operating or training requirements to ensure optimized human-machine interfaces.
Integrate human factors requirements into operational hardware.
Review health, safety, accident, or worker compensation records to evaluate safety program effectiveness or to identify jobs with high incidence of injury.
Design or evaluate human work systems, using human factors engineering and ergonomic principles to optimize usability, cost, quality, safety, or performance.
Write, review, or comment on documents, such as proposals, test plans, or procedures.
Train users in task techniques or ergonomic principles.
Conduct research to evaluate potential solutions related to changes in equipment design, procedures, manpower, personnel, or training.
Provide human factors technical expertise on topics, such as advanced user-interface technology development or the role of human users in automated or autonomous sub-systems in advanced vehicle systems.
Develop or implement human performance research, investigation, or analysis protocols.
Develop or implement research methodologies or statistical analysis plans to test and evaluate developmental prototypes used in new products or processes, such as cockpit designs, user workstations, or computerized human models.
Estimate time or resource requirements for ergonomic or human factors research or development projects.
Design cognitive aids, such as procedural storyboards or decision support systems.
Analyze complex systems to determine potential for further development, production, interoperability, compatibility, or usefulness in a particular area, such as aviation.
Investigate theoretical or conceptual issues, such as the human design considerations of lunar landers or habitats.
Operate testing equipment, such as heat stress meters, octave band analyzers, motion analysis equipment, inclinometers, light meters, thermoanemometers, sling psychrometers, or colorimetric detection tubes.
Perform statistical analyses, such as social network pattern analysis, network modeling, discrete event simulation, agent-based modeling, statistical natural language processing, computational sociology, mathematical optimization, or systems dynamics.
Apply modeling or quantitative analysis to forecast events, such as human decisions or behaviors, the structure or processes of organizations, or the attitudes or actions of human groups.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 28.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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