Baking Factory Worker

A baking factory worker operates bakery production equipment and processes raw ingredients into finished baked goods within a large-scale manufacturing facility. They follow standardised recipes and production schedules, monitor equipment operation, and ensure compliance with food safety and hygiene standards required by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). The role involves repetitive, physically demanding work in a fast-paced industrial environment.

Load raw ingredients such as flour, sugar, yeast, and fats into industrial mixers and dough-making equipment according to batch specifications. Monitor mixing times and dough consistency using visual assessment and equipment gauges, adjusting variables as needed. Transfer prepared dough to moulding, dividing, or shaping machinery and adjust settings for portion size and shape. Place dough pieces on conveyor systems or baking trays and feed them into industrial ovens at specified temperatures and durations. Monitor baked products during production for colour, rise, and texture, removing items from ovens when baked to specification. Perform cleaning and sanitation of mixing bowls, baking trays, utensils, and production surfaces according to FSANZ food safety standards. Check finished products for defects, off-specification size, or damage, and sort or reject non-conforming items. Wrap, box, or bag finished baked goods and stack them on pallets for storage or dispatch.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

The work is genuinely repetitive and physically tough. You'll be on your feet in hot, humid conditions around industrial ovens, doing the same tasks dozens of times a shift. Pay is modest with limited advancement without moving into supervision. Shift work including early starts and weekends is standard. Your body takes a hit over time.

The reality is these factories cluster near transport routes and population centres rather than regional areas. Remote work isn't possible in this role.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 8311, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
• Administer ingredients in food productioncore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracycore
• Clean food and beverage machinerycore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Inventory Trackingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Risk Identificationcore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Workload Self-Managementcore
• Act reliably
• Active Listening
• Adhere to organisational guidelines
• Carry out checks of production plant equipment
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Goods Receipt Processing
• Problem Solving
• Process Improvement Identification
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Stock Counting and Stocktake

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Baking Factory Worker move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026