Quality Technician Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A quality technician measures and tests product like an inspector does, and also keeps the quality system running: the SPC charts, the gauge calibration, the CMM programs and the reports engineers act on. This page has a quality technician job description template you can copy, the duties and interview questions that separate a technician from an inspector, and what the work pays.
Quality technician vs quality control inspector
In the federal data they are the same occupation. O*NET lists “Quality Technician”, “QC Technician” and “Quality Control Inspector” as reported titles for inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers and weighers (SOC 51-9061), and the BLS pay and outlook figures on this page describe that whole group. On the plant floor, most employers use the two titles for different jobs:
- A quality control inspector checks product against the specification: measures it, accepts or rejects it, marks it and writes it up.
- A quality technician does that and works on the system behind it: running tests and gauge studies, collecting and charting process data (statistical process control, or SPC), calibrating instruments, programming or running a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), and helping engineers find the cause when a process drifts.
At the top end, the technician job overlaps with a second occupation. O*NET lists “QC Engineering Technician” under industrial engineering technologists and technicians (17-3026), whose tasks include compiling and evaluating statistical data to maintain product quality and recommending corrective or preventive actions. That occupation typically enters with an associate’s degree and pays more.
| Occupation | Median pay, May 2025 | Employed, 2025 | Change, 2025–35 | Openings a year | Typical entry education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers and weighers (51-9061) | $48,570 | 602,000 | 3% | 66,700 | High school diploma |
| Industrial engineering technologists and technicians (17-3026) | $66,120 | 76,700 | 3% | 6,600 | Associate’s degree |
Decide which job you are hiring for before you write the posting. If the role is mostly measuring and dispositioning parts, call it an inspector and pay inspector rates. If you need someone to own SPC charts, run the CMM and lead a root-cause investigation, call it a technician, say so in the first paragraph, and expect to pay toward the second row.
Quality technician duties
The O*NET task list for 51-9061, filtered to the technician end of the job:
- Inspect, test or measure materials, products and work for conformance to specifications
- Read blueprints, data and manuals to determine specifications and inspection requirements
- Collect or select samples for testing
- Record inspection and test data, analyze it, and compute defect percentages or averages
- Write test or inspection reports describing results, recommendations or needed repairs
- Recommend corrective actions based on inspection results
- Clean, maintain, calibrate or repair measuring instruments and test equipment
- Monitor production operations and machines that automatically measure, sort or inspect products
- Check arriving materials against purchase orders
- Notify supervisors of production problems
The tools run from calipers, micrometers, height gauges and dial indicators to complex test equipment. The software O*NET names is where the technician role shows: Minitab and data analysis software, coordinate measuring machine software such as Wilcox Associates PC-DMIS and Verisurf, Cybermetrics GAGETrak for gauge calibration, SAP, and Excel.
| Working conditions (51-9061) | Share reporting it |
|---|---|
| Wear protective or safety equipment | 93% every day |
| Face-to-face discussions | 91% every day |
| Exposed to contaminants | 69% every day |
| Indoors, not environmentally controlled | 66% every day |
| Being exact or accurate rated extremely important | 60% |
| Work week longer than 40 hours | 51% |
This is a floor job with a desk attached, not a lab job. If your quality technicians spend most of the day in a climate-controlled metrology room, say so; it is a real recruiting advantage over the national picture.
Quality technician job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields and delete what does not apply. It is written for a manufacturing plant with an SPC program; the notes below cover regulated industries and contract testing.
Job title
Quality Technician [/ QC Technician / Quality Control Technician / CMM Technician], [Shift], [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a quality technician for [shift] at our [plant type] in [city]. You will test and measure [parts / product / materials], keep our SPC charts and gauges honest, and work with production and engineering to find out why a process drifts before it makes bad parts. You report to [Quality Manager / Quality Engineer].
[Shift and days]. [Pay range]. [One sentence on what is good about working here: the lab, the equipment, the training, the path to quality engineer.]
What you will do
• Perform first-article, in-process and final inspections using [calipers, micrometers, height gauges, CMM, vision system]
• Collect process data and maintain SPC charts in [Minitab / SPC software]; flag out-of-control conditions to production
• Program and run the [CMM / PC-DMIS / Calypso] for [part families]
• Run [gauge R&R / capability studies] and support [PPAP / validation] packages
• Manage the gauge calibration program in [GAGETrak / system]
• Inspect incoming material and handle supplier nonconformances
• Write nonconformance reports and support root-cause and corrective action (8D, 5 Why)
• Train operators on in-process checks and standard work
• Follow [ISO 9001 / IATF 16949 / AS9100 / FDA 21 CFR 820] procedures and support audits
What you need
• High school diploma or equivalent; [associate’s degree or quality certificate preferred]
• Able to read blueprints, including [GD&T]
• Confident with precision measuring tools
• Comfortable with Excel and entering data accurately
• Clear writer: your reports are what engineering acts on
• [Able to stand for most of a shift and lift __ lbs]
Nice to have
• CMM programming experience
• SPC and Minitab experience
• ASQ Certified Quality Technician (CQT) or [other certification]
• Experience in [your industry or quality system]
What we offer
• [Pay range], [shift differential]
• [Schedule and overtime expectations]
• [Benefits and eligibility date]
• [Paid training, certification exam fees]
• [The next job: senior technician, quality engineer, supplier quality]
How to apply
[One step. A short form and a call with the quality manager.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Education | BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry-level education for the occupation, and 70 percent of O*NET respondents reported it as required; 27 percent reported a postsecondary certificate. Ask for an associate’s degree only if the role is truly engineering-technician work. |
| Experience | BLS lists no required work experience and on-the-job training of more than a month and up to a year. For the technician level, ask for the specific skill (blueprint reading, SPC, CMM) rather than years. |
| CQT certification | A strong plus, not a filter. ASQ requires four years of on-the-job experience in its body-of-knowledge areas to sit the exam (one to three years less with a qualifying certificate or degree), so requiring it rules out most early-career technicians. |
| CMM and SPC software | Name the platform. Someone who writes PC-DMIS programs and someone who can run a saved one are different hires. |
| Quality system | Name ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS9100 or FDA requirements if they apply. Experienced candidates search for them. |
| Physical | Standing, PPE and noise are normal in this occupation. Say so. |
Customizing it by setting
Automotive and aerospace suppliers
Name the standard (IATF 16949 or AS9100), PPAP or first-article responsibilities, and the CMM platform. Manufacturing employs 64 percent of the occupation at a $49,270 median.
Medical devices, food and pharmaceuticals
Documentation and validation dominate. Name the regulations, the batch or device history records the technician keeps, and any clean-room or gowning requirement.
Testing laboratories and engineering services
Professional, scientific and technical services employs 10 percent at the highest median BLS lists, $52,350. The job is closer to a lab technician: sample prep, test methods, accreditation requirements.
What quality technicians earn
Quality control inspectors, the BLS group that includes quality technicians, had a median wage of $48,570 a year, about $23.35 an hour, in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $35,510 and the highest 10 percent more than $77,860. BLS does not publish technicians separately from inspectors, so check local pay before you set a range for a role that owns SPC, calibration and CMM programming.
| Industry | Median annual wage (May 2025) | Share of the occupation |
|---|---|---|
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $52,350 | 10% |
| Manufacturing | $49,270 | 64% |
| Wholesale trade | $47,190 | 6% |
| Administrative and support services | $37,380 | 7% |
There were 602,000 quality control inspectors in 2025, and BLS projects employment to grow 3 percent, about as fast as average, through 2035, with about 66,700 openings a year.
A note on vintages: our quality control inspector job description quotes 598,000 employed and about 69,900 openings a year. Those are O*NET’s figures from the previous projection set (2024 base, 2024–34). The figures here are the current Occupational Outlook Handbook edition, last modified 27 August 2026. The May 2025 wage is the same in both.
What it costs to reach a quality technician
We benchmark quality technicians in the technician / mechanic role family, because the SPC, calibration and CMM skills make the audience closer to technicians than to line workers. Those campaigns ran a median cost per applicant of $13.41 on Meta, with the middle half between $7.40 and $23.58, a blended figure of $8.35 and a 16 percent apply rate. The all-role median is $13.88. Entry-level inspector roles sit closer to our warehouse / production family, at a $9.83 median and a 20 percent apply rate.
Across the whole benchmark, applicant conversion explains about 70 percent of the variation in cost per applicant between campaigns. Screen for blueprint reading and gauge experience with two short questions, not a resume upload.
Interview questions for a quality technician
Each question comes with what a good answer sounds like.
1. Your SPC chart shows seven points in a row above the center line, all in spec. What do you do?
They should recognize a process shift even though no part is out of spec, alert production, check for a cause (tool wear, material lot, setup) and document it. “It is in spec, so nothing” is the wrong answer.
2. How would you check that a gauge is fit to use?
Listen for calibration status and due date, a check against a master or standard, and ideally gauge R&R. A candidate who has run a study will describe operators, parts and trials.
3. Walk me through this GD&T callout on one of our drawings.
Use a drawing from your own product. You will learn more in two minutes than from any resume line.
4. Production wants to ship a lot you think is borderline. What happens next?
A good technician holds the lot, documents the data, escalates to the quality engineer or manager, and does not make it personal. This is a pass/fail question.
5. Tell me about a root-cause investigation you were part of.
Look for a structured method (5 Why, fishbone, 8D), their specific role, and a corrective action that was verified. Vague team credit is a warning sign.
6. Which measuring tools and software have you used, and which could you train someone else on?
The second half of the question separates operators of a tool from people who understand it.
For line and inspection hires, see our manufacturing interview questions.
Staffing the rest of the quality and production team? See the quality control inspector, machinist, CNC operator, production supervisor and production operator job descriptions, and production recruiting for the hiring side.
The job description is not the job ad
The template is the document for your ATS. The ad has a different job: getting an employed technician or a sharp inspector to stop scrolling.
- First line is pay and shift.
- Name the equipment and software: CMM brand, SPC platform, quality system. That is what a good technician screens on.
- Say whether you train, and whether you pay for certification.
- One short application with two screening questions.
The full version of that argument is on job ad copywriting.
Frequently asked questions
What does a quality technician do?
A quality technician tests, measures and inspects materials and products against specifications, and maintains the systems behind that work: statistical process control charts, gauge calibration, CMM programs, test records and nonconformance reports. They alert production when a process drifts and support engineers in root-cause investigations and corrective actions. The exact mix depends on the plant and its quality system.
What is the difference between a quality technician and a quality control inspector?
BLS and O*NET count them as one occupation, inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers and weighers (51-9061). In practice, an inspector checks product against the specification and accepts or rejects it, while a technician also runs SPC, calibrates gauges, programs or runs a CMM and supports root-cause work. Technician roles usually ask for more experience and pay toward the top of the occupation’s range.
What are the main quality technician duties?
The core quality technician duties are inspecting and measuring product, reading blueprints, collecting samples, recording and analyzing test data, computing defect rates, writing inspection and nonconformance reports, recommending corrective actions, and calibrating measuring instruments. Many also train operators on in-process checks and support audits under ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS9100 or FDA requirements.
What qualifications does a quality technician need?
BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry-level education for the occupation, with on-the-job training of more than a month and up to a year. In O*NET’s survey, 70 percent reported a high school diploma as required and 27 percent a postsecondary certificate. Blueprint reading, precision measuring and data skills matter most; certification is optional.
How much do quality technicians make?
Quality control inspectors, the BLS occupation that includes quality technicians, had a median wage of $48,570 a year, about $23.35 an hour, in May 2025. The top 10 percent earned more than $77,860. Professional, scientific and technical services paid the highest industry median at $52,350, and manufacturing, which employs 64 percent, paid $49,270.
Is the ASQ Certified Quality Technician certification required?
No. BLS describes certification for this occupation as optional. The American Society for Quality’s CQT requires four years of on-the-job experience in areas of its body of knowledge before you can sit the exam, or one to three years less with a qualifying certificate or degree, so treat it as a strong plus for experienced hires and offer to pay for it for internal candidates rather than requiring it.
What should I ask in a quality technician interview?
Ask what they would do with an SPC chart showing a run above the center line while everything is in spec, how they check that a gauge is fit to use, how they read a GD&T callout from your own drawing, what they do when production wants to ship a borderline lot, and what root-cause investigation they have been part of.
Is quality control a growing field?
Steadily. BLS projects employment of quality control inspectors to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as average, from 602,000 jobs, with about 66,700 openings a year. Industrial engineering technologists and technicians, which includes QC engineering technicians, is projected to grow 3 percent as well, with about 6,600 openings a year.
How much does it cost to recruit a quality technician?
On Meta, technician and mechanic roles, the closest family in our data, ran a median of $13.41 per applicant across our managed campaigns, with the middle half between $7.40 and $23.58 and a 16 percent apply rate. Entry-level inspector roles sit closer to warehouse and production, at a $9.83 median. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Related job descriptions
Hiring quality technicians?
The description is the document. Putting it in front of technicians and inspectors who are not on a job board is the part we do.
Wage, employment, projection, training and industry data for quality control inspectors (SOC 51-9061), the occupation O*NET lists “Quality Technician” under: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, last modified 27 August 2026; O*NET OnLine 51-9061.00 for tasks, tools, software, work context and education. Industrial engineering technicians comparison: OOH and O*NET 17-3026.00. CQT requirements: ASQ. Wage figures are May 2025 OEWS. Read at source 24 September 2026. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.