Salary explorer
Space industry salaries, discipline by discipline
A propulsion test engineer, a satellite operator and a launch-site technician earn very different salaries, and one title can pay differently at a startup and at a prime contractor. This map is drawn from the pay space companies print on the roles they have open today.
, SpaceJobs.Now lists 18,574 open space industry jobs; their typical pay runs $113k to $250k a year, with a median of $145k.
- Programs & Business$117k–$255k/yr
- Manufacturing & Technicians$72.8k–$195k/yr
- Systems, Integration & Test$125k–$254k/yr
- Ground Software & IT$136k–$270k/yr
- Mechanical, Structures & Thermal$120k–$235k/yr
- Supply Chain & Facilities$79.6k–$201k/yr
- Avionics & Electrical$131k–$257k/yr
- Quality & Mission Assurance$90.1k–$211k/yr
- Flight Software & GNC$140k–$270k/yr
- RF, Communications & Payloads$143k–$280k/yr
- Launch & Mission Operations$110k–$224k/yr
- Science, Imaging & Earth Data$124k–$254k/yr
- Propulsion & Engines$120k–$245k/yr
- AI Training for Engineers & Scientists
“Typical” spans the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top. It is worked out from 10,577 distinct salaries and rates on the postings of 99 employers, out of the 18,574 roles open now. The lowest posted figure is $2.08k/yr and the highest $948k/yr; each is a real posting, and neither moves the typical range. Each discipline and employer below is measured from its own open roles in that same way. A posted salary is base pay: bonuses, equity, overtime and shift premiums come on top. Pay is compared as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours (40 a week for 52 weeks), a weekly one at 52 weeks, a monthly one at 12 months. Figures we did not measure say how we know them. Last read 7 Nov 2026. How the salary data is collected. The findings written up for quoting are in the Space Industry Pay Report; employers ranked by what they pay are on the highest-paying space companies; and the salary calculator turns a salary into a week and a month at your own hours.
By discipline
Salaries across 14 space disciplines
Open a discipline for the work it covers, the companies hiring for it now and the salaries they post.
Programs & Business
Run the company and its missions: program and project management, scheduling and program control, business development and sales of launches, satellites and data, finance and accounting, contracts, legal and export control, people and recruiting, and communications..
Live median $148000/hr. Measured from 1,636 distinct posted rates, across 90 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 1,178 of the 3,006 open jobs here state no pay.
Manufacturing & Technicians
Build the hardware with your hands and run the lines that make it: assembly, integration and test technicians, machinists and CNC programmers, welders, composites and additive manufacturing, electrical and harness technicians, and the manufacturing engineers who design the process. Many of these roles are hourly and open to people without a degree.
Live median $93000/hr. Measured from 1,273 distinct posted rates, across 71 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 1,073 of the 2,400 open jobs here state no pay.
Systems, Integration & Test
Tie the vehicle together and prove it works: systems engineering and architecture, requirements and verification, assembly, integration and test (AI&T), environmental testing in thermal vacuum and vibration, and test engineering for whole vehicles and their subsystems..
Live median $152000/hr. Measured from 1,447 distinct posted rates, across 85 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 785 of the 2,392 open jobs here state no pay.
Ground Software & IT
Build the software on the ground: mission and ground-segment software, data platforms, web and backend engineering, cloud and DevOps, IT and cybersecurity, and the factory and business systems a space company runs on..
Live median $163000/hr. Measured from 1,310 distinct posted rates, across 76 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 782 of the 2,301 open jobs here state no pay.
Mechanical, Structures & Thermal
Design and analyze the physical vehicle: primary structures and tanks, mechanisms and deployables, thermal control, materials and processes, loads and stress analysis, aerodynamics and reentry, and the ground support equipment that fuels and handles a vehicle on the pad..
Live median $145000/hr. Measured from 1,008 distinct posted rates, across 75 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 538 of the 1,589 open jobs here state no pay.
Supply Chain & Facilities
Keep the factory and the launch site supplied and running: procurement and buying, supplier management, planning and inventory, logistics, shipping and receiving, warehouses, and the facilities, maintenance and site security of plants, test sites and launch pads..
Live median $113000/hr. Measured from 701 distinct posted rates, across 65 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 652 of the 1,383 open jobs here state no pay.
Avionics & Electrical
Build the electrical heart of a rocket or satellite: flight computers and avionics boxes, power systems and batteries, harnesses, circuit boards, FPGAs and ASICs, and the electronics that must survive launch loads, vacuum and radiation..
Live median $160000/hr. Measured from 910 distinct posted rates, across 71 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 397 of the 1,361 open jobs here state no pay.
Quality & Mission Assurance
Make sure the hardware is right before it flies: quality engineering and inspection, mission and product assurance, reliability, nondestructive testing, supplier quality, and environment, health and safety on sites that handle propellants and high-energy systems..
Live median $123000/hr. Measured from 524 distinct posted rates, across 57 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 444 of the 1,004 open jobs here state no pay.
Flight Software & GNC
Write the software that flies the vehicle and steer it: flight and embedded software, firmware, guidance, navigation and control, flight dynamics and orbit determination, and the autonomy that lets a spacecraft rendezvous, land or reenter on its own..
Live median $169000/hr. Measured from 625 distinct posted rates, across 68 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 315 of the 975 open jobs here state no pay.
RF, Communications & Payloads
Make spacecraft talk and sense: RF and antenna design, phased arrays, signal processing and modems, optical and laser communication terminals, and the payloads a satellite carries, from broadband and direct-to-phone links to radar and imaging instruments..
Live median $174000/hr. Measured from 415 distinct posted rates, across 52 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 298 of the 722 open jobs here state no pay.
Launch & Mission Operations
Get vehicles off the ground and keep them flying: launch site and pad operations, launch control and range, recovery of reusable stages, mission operations and flight control, satellite and constellation operations, and ground station operations around the clock..
Live median $135000/hr. Measured from 315 distinct posted rates, across 57 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 242 of the 571 open jobs here state no pay.
Science, Imaging & Earth Data
Turn what spacecraft see into knowledge: remote sensing and Earth observation, synthetic aperture radar and optical imaging, geospatial and intelligence analysis, data science and machine learning on satellite data, and the scientists who design missions and instruments..
Live median $158000/hr. Measured from 181 distinct posted rates, across 36 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 203 of the 390 open jobs here state no pay.
Propulsion & Engines
Design, build and test the engines that move rockets and spacecraft: liquid rocket engines and their turbomachinery, combustion devices and injectors, solid rocket motors, in-space thrusters and electric propulsion, and the fluids and cryogenic systems that feed them. Much of it happens on a test stand, firing hardware and reading the data.
Live median $149000/hr. Measured from 239 distinct posted rates, across 35 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 131 of the 371 open jobs here state no pay.
AI Training for Engineers & Scientists
AI companies pay engineers, physicists, mathematicians and software people to grade and correct AI answers in their field, write model solutions and review reasoning step by step. It is remote contract work beside a full-time job, and each listing states its own pay and requirements.
Too few of these jobs post an hourly rate for a typical band, so each job shows its own.
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Salaries by company: AI Training for Engineers & Scientists
A row marked From its open roles gives that company’s typical pay (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top) in ai training for engineers & scientists, read 7 Nov 2026. Sorting by “Highest pay” puts the biggest median first, and a click on a figure lists the postings it comes from. Switch the discipline beside the table to compare other companies. The figures are rebuilt every day. A program that names too little pay to measure shows the rate card we researched for it, dated 2026-10-29.
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