Market Analysis: Insights from 928 Process Design Jobs

Key Findings

• Most roles are mid-level: 52% of process design positions target professionals with 5+ years of experience
• Median salary is $133,540: The middle 80% of roles pay between $77K and $187K annually
• Certifications appear in 46% of posts: PMP, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Six Sigma Green Belt lead requests
• Five industries capture two-thirds of roles: Financial Services (16%), Technology (15%), Manufacturing (14%), Professional Services (12%) and Healthcare (11%) lead postings
• Texas leads the market: 10% of U.S. roles are posted in Texas, followed by California (9%) and Florida (8%)
• Degrees increasingly required: Only 33% of junior roles skip degree requirements, dropping to 13% at senior levels

The Role of a Process Design Professional

The market dynamics here reflect broader patterns we see across process optimization recruitment, where organizations invest in professionals who can drive measurable operational improvements.

We categorized each role by seniority and found the market heavily favors mid-level professionals – they account for just over half of all postings.

We then extracted experience requirements (87% of roles mentioned a specific number) and calculated the average minimum at each level of seniority. Finally, we analyzed job titles to identify the most common naming conventions at each level.

• Junior (27% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 3 years
  • Common titles: Business Process Analyst, Process Improvement Engineer, SAP Business Process & IT Controls Sr. Associate
• Mid-Level (52% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 5 years
  • Common titles: Process Improvement Manager, Business Process Reengineering Specialist, Process Optimization Engineer
• Senior (21% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 9 years
  • Common titles: Director Business Analysis & Process Improvement, VP Process Transformation, Director of SOX Business Process

Most process design jobs are mid-level

What Do Process Design Jobs Involve?

So what is a process design professional actually responsible for day-to-day? We analyzed the language across all 928 job posts to extract the core responsibilities at each level. What emerged is a clear progression of expectations from analysis to strategic vision:

Junior-Level Roles:

• Analyze workflows and identify inefficiencies through data review
• Support Lean and Six Sigma initiatives with process mapping
• Maintain process documentation and compliance monitoring systems

Mid-Level Roles:

• Lead end-to-end process redesign projects across functions
• Build improvement frameworks and change management strategies
• Conduct due diligence and business case development for transformations

Senior-Level Roles:

• Establish enterprise operational excellence vision and governance
• Oversee ERP modernization and SOX program design initiatives
• Build forecasting capabilities that inform strategic planning

Key takeaway: Junior professionals analyze and document workflows, mid-level leaders redesign processes and build frameworks, senior executives establish enterprise vision. Each step up means more strategic influence over how operations evolve.

Who’s Hiring for Process Design?

Financial Services leads with 16% of process design postings, followed closely by Technology at 15%. Manufacturing captures 14%, with Professional Services at 12% and Healthcare at 11% rounding out the top five.

Together, these five industries account for two-thirds of all process design opportunities – reflecting where operational efficiency and workflow optimization create the most strategic value. The concentration across financial services, technology and manufacturing tracks with sectors undergoing active digital transformation and continuous process modernization.

Two thirds of process design jobs are in 5 industry segments

Large companies with 10,001+ employees account for 38% of postings – above the broader workforce distribution across the U.S. economy. Organizations with 1,001-10,000 employees add another 19%, meaning roughly half of process design roles are at companies with over 1,000 employees.

What’s notable is the small business presence – 18% of roles come from companies with 51-200 employees. This suggests process design serves growing organizations building operational rigor, not just mature enterprises.

Large companies are the biggest employers for process design jobs

Where Are Process Design Jobs Located?

Texas, California and Florida lead process design hiring

Texas captures 10% of all process design postings. California follows at 9%, Florida at 8%, New York at 7%, and Illinois rounds out the top five at 5%.

The concentration in major business hubs reflects where headquarters and operations centers cluster. Remote roles account for just 9% of postings despite increasingly digital tools, suggesting most organizations prefer process designers on-site where they can observe workflows directly and facilitate stakeholder workshops.

Beyond the top five, states worth watching include North Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey and Ohio – each capturing roughly 3-5% of the market and representing growing regional business centers with maturing operational capabilities.

Two fifths of process design roles are located in 5 states

Key takeaway: Texas and California together capture nearly one-fifth of process design opportunities nationwide. The consultative nature of transformation work keeps remote options limited – expect on-site or hybrid requirements for most roles given the need for direct workflow observation.

Requirements for Process Design Jobs

We analyzed the minimum requirements of each job post and found that most process design jobs (76%) require some form of degree. The pattern tightens considerably as you move up the career ladder.

For junior roles, 67% require a degree (66% bachelor’s, 1% master’s). The remaining 33% don’t specify formal education requirements.

Mid-level positions tighten up: 80% require a degree (77% bachelor’s, 3% master’s).

Senior roles have the strictest requirements: 87% require a degree (78% bachelor’s, 9% master’s).

Degree fields of study that are typically requested of process design professionals include:

• Business (28%)
• Engineering (23%)
• Finance (21%)
• Business Administration (15%)
• Accounting (14%)
• Economics (12%)
• Industrial Engineering (8%)
• Operations Management (8%)
• Operations (7%)
• Computer Science (6%)

Degree requirements increase as your process design career progresses

Requested Qualifications in Process Design Job Posts

Process design professionals must excel at communication, change management and process improvement. Communication appeared in 47% of listings, change management in 40%, and process improvement in 38% – reflecting the role’s dual nature as both technical analyst and organizational change agent.

Data analysis (38%), project management (37%) and stakeholder engagement (27%) round out the core capabilities, emphasizing the need to translate operational data into action while orchestrating cross-functional teams.

Deep methodological expertise matters equally. Six Sigma (18%), Lean (16%) and Agile (12%) are table stakes, supported by hands-on experience with tools like SQL, Power BI and Microsoft Visio.

Nearly half of postings (46%) request specific certifications, with these credentials leading:

• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Six Sigma Black Belt
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
• Lean Six Sigma
• Six Sigma Green Belt
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

Key takeaway: Methodological credentials validate technical expertise – Six Sigma and Lean certifications signal hands-on improvement capability. Communication and change management skills separate strong candidates from purely technical ones, determining whether redesigned processes actually get adopted.

What do Process Design Jobs Pay?

Just over half (54%) of the process design roles we analyzed included an advertised salary.

There was significant breadth in the ranges employers posted, so we normalized the data by selecting the midpoint for our analysis. From our experience, this is generally a much more indicative number for an employer’s target offer – especially in the current market where initial ranges often run wide.

Across the entire dataset of salaries, we found the median salary for process design positions to be $133,540. The middle 80% of salaries (10th to 90th percentile) ranged from $76,575 to $186,750.

Most process design salaries fall within $77k to $187k

Breaking process design salaries down by seniority reveals substantial progression at the senior levels and a fair amount of overlap between junior and mid-level tiers. Junior roles start at a median $96,500, with mid-level positions climbing modestly by 30% to $125,840. The jump to senior adds another 42% – reaching $178,737 median.

What’s notable is how closely the junior and mid-level salaries match each other, with only a ~$25k premium for mid-level process designers at each of the percentiles we measured. 

However, senior roles at the 10th percentile ($155,949) significantly exceed mid-level roles at the median, creating clear separation between mid and senior level tiers.

Some overlap exists between mid and senior entry points around $155,000, reflecting how specialized platform expertise (SAP, ERP systems) can command senior-level compensation even at mid-career stages.

Senior process designers are in the top 8% of U.S. earners

Key takeaway: Process design positions pay exceptionally well at senior levels. The median senior-level salary of $178K puts these roles in the top 8% of all earners in the United States. Mid-level professionals earning the median $125K land in the top 16%.

Final Thoughts

For Candidates: Pursue Lean Six Sigma certifications early – they appear in nearly half of postings and accelerate credibility. Build hands-on experience with process mapping and data analysis tools like SQL and Power BI. For mid-level roles, demonstrating you’ve led process redesign projects end-to-end separates candidates. At senior levels, experience establishing enterprise governance and overseeing ERP transformations matters more than technical methodology expertise alone.

For Employers: The salary clustering around $125,000 for mid-level roles reflects market maturity – fall significantly below that and expect longer time-to-fill. The strongest signal for senior candidates is experience with enterprise operational excellence initiatives and SOX program design, not just incremental process improvements. Remote flexibility remains surprisingly limited at 9% – process design requires substantial on-site collaboration for workflow observation and stakeholder engagement.

Methodology

We analyzed 928 process design job postings collected from LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor between November 2024 and January 2025. The dataset was limited to full-time roles posted in the United States that explicitly mentioned “process design,” “process improvement,” “business process” or close variations in the job title.

Duplicate postings were removed using job title, company name and location matching. Seniority levels were determined by analyzing job titles alongside minimum experience requirements stated in each posting. When experience ranges were provided, the lower bound was used for consistency.

Salary data was extracted from the 54% of postings that included compensation ranges. We used the midpoint of each range for analysis, as this most closely reflects employer target offers in practice.

Industry classifications were assigned based on company descriptions and verified against LinkedIn company data where available. Geographic analysis was conducted at the state level using the primary job location listed in each posting.