Career profile · SOC ESC-6D8F890E

leather goods quality controller

Leather goods quality controllers analyse visual aspects of the leather goods related to appearance, robustness, absence of wrinkles, straightness of seams, cleanliness and colour uniformity, compared to the specifications. They also perform expedite tests.

leather goods quality controller leather goods quality controllers analyse visual aspects of the leather goods related to appearance, robustness, absence of wrinkles, straightness of seams, cleanliness and colour uniformity, compared to the specifications. They also perform expedite tests. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include footwear finishing techniques, leather goods manufacturing processes, leather goods components, leather goods quality, leather goods materials.

AI exposure
5.0/10
automation risk

Pay in the UK

UK: median £34,360 a year for Routine inspectors and testers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)

Middle half of full-time jobs: £28,338 to £43,307 a year

UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 8143). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)

Pay in India (occupation group)

Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Craft and related trades workers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only leather goods quality controller, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.

Urban India
₹17,819 a month
Rural India
₹15,532 a month
All India
₹16,773 a month

Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 7. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report

Top skills

footwear finishing techniques leather goods manufacturing processes leather goods components leather goods quality leather goods materials apply footwear and leather goods quality control techniques communicate commercial and technical issues in foreign languages use communication techniques manage footwear quality systems use IT tools

Knowledge you'll build

  • Production and Processing
  • English Language
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Mechanical
  • Mathematics
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Education and Training
  • Engineering and Technology

What you'd actually do

  • Discard or reject products, materials, or equipment not meeting specifications.
  • Mark items with details, such as grade or acceptance-rejection status.
  • Measure dimensions of products to verify conformance to specifications, using measuring instruments, such as rulers, calipers, gauges, or micrometers.
  • Notify supervisors or other personnel of production problems.
  • Inspect, test, or measure materials, products, installations, or work for conformance to specifications.
  • Write test or inspection reports describing results, recommendations, or needed repairs.

Tools & technology you'd use

Microsoft Excel hot Microsoft Office software hot Microsoft Outlook hot Microsoft PowerPoint hot Microsoft Word hot Apache Hive hot Atlassian JIRA hot Autodesk AutoCAD hot Dassault Systemes SolidWorks hot Extensible markup language XML hot Microsoft Access hot Microsoft SharePoint hot

Frequently asked questions

What does leather goods quality controller do?

Leather goods quality controllers analyse visual aspects of the leather goods related to appearance, robustness, absence of wrinkles, straightness of seams, cleanliness and colour uniformity, compared to the specifications. They also perform expedite tests.

What skills does leather goods quality controller need?

The most in-demand skills for this role include footwear finishing techniques, leather goods manufacturing processes, leather goods components, leather goods quality, leather goods materials, apply footwear and leather goods quality control techniques. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Will AI replace leather goods quality controller?

Our AI-durability model gives leather goods quality controller a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.

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