ShopFloorJobs
↗ Share

Illinois · week of October 19, 2026

Illinois plant jobs: 403 open roles at 139 manufacturers

Who's hiring plant engineers, technicians and supervisors in Illinois, what it pays, and what they ask for.

See all 403 Illinois roles →What Illinois plants ask for →

403
open plant roles
72
posted in the last 7 days

18% of all openings

139
manufacturers hiring

Caterpillar, Gotion, Flex

$86k–$120k
typical engineering base

-7% vs the US

The takeaways

  1. 1

    Reliability has the most openings in Illinois: 101 roles, ahead of quality (76).

  2. 2

    $113k–$169k is the typical base for lean / ci engineers, the best-paid team here (3 postings list pay).

  3. 3

    7% below the US typical engineering base: Illinois pays $86k–$120k.

  4. 4

    Caterpillar is hiring the most, with 27 open plant roles, 16 of them new this week.

Explore by team

Openings and pay, team by team

Tap a team to see its skills and hirers.

Open roles

openposted this week

Typical base pay (engineers and senior engineers)

  • Lean / CIBest paid$113k–$169k
  • Reliability$100k–$135k
  • Manufacturing$87k–$134k
  • Controls$89k–$133k
  • Quality$95k–$122k
  • Industrial$80k–$120k
  • Production$82k–$103k
  • Process$78k–$100k
$70k$120k$170k

Skills plants name most

  • Team leadership#1 ask40%
  • Root cause35%
  • Lean29%
  • Automation26%
  • PLC21%

Top 5 shown. See all of them →

Hiring the most

  1. 1Caterpillar27
  2. 2Gotion26
  3. 3Flex22
  4. 4Medline19
  5. + the rest of the top hirers with a free account

By state

Where the plant jobs are

Illinois: 403 open roles · #6 of 51

Top 5:1. California 1,4332. Texas 9703. Ohio 5574. Michigan 4645. North Carolina 409

AKMEVTNHWAIDMTNDMNILWIMINYRIMAORNVWYSDIAINOHPANJCTCAUTCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCDCOKLAMSALGAHITXFL
FewerMore open rolestop 5this report

Who plants are hiring

Engineers, techs and supervisors

219 engineering and Lean / CI roles; 184 technician and supervisor roles on the same teams.

34%Technician
  • Engineer110 · 27%
  • Senior37 · 9%
  • Manager / lead72 · 18%
  • Supervisor48 · 12%
  • Technician136 · 34%

How fresh

When these roles went up

Roles posted in the last two weeks get the fastest replies from teams.

  • This week72
  • 8–14 days71
  • 15–30 daysMost164
  • 30+ days51
  • Date not listed45

Where

Top cities

  • Chicago, ILMost roles34
  • Manteno, IL26
  • Normal, IL17
  • Aurora, IL14
  • Rockford, IL11

Industries

Which industries are hiring

Openings by industry

Free with an account. Takes 30 seconds.

Unlock the full reportSign in

Go deeper: what moves pay

Belt and license premiums, pay by years asked, skills that come as a package, and the unusual perks plants offer.

See the findings →The pay model →

Source and method

Source
ShopFloorJobs analysis of 403 live plant job postings from 139 manufacturers' own careers sites (Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle, iCIMS, Greenhouse and others), not job boards.
Collected
Week of October 19, 2026. Postings are re-checked daily; closed roles drop out.
Method
Each posting is counted once per role and city. Teams and levels are read from the job title; pay is the middle of each posting's listed range, for engineer and senior engineer levels, shown where at least 3 postings list one; skills are counted when the posting names them.

Cite this report

ShopFloorJobs, "Illinois plant jobs report, week of October 19, 2026," Week of October 19, 2026. https://shopfloorjobs.com/reports/illinois

Free to quote and share with a link to this page.

Reports by state