Space Jobs for Physicists

Listed here: Northrop Grumman roles. See every employer

Pay by specialty

Every specialty gets its typical band from its own open roles, computed by the same method as the rest of the site (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). A specialty is listed once three or more distinct rates have been posted.

What the roles ask for

Drawn from the requirement lines of 58 out of 93 open roles for physicists, astronomers and optical engineers, the same lines each role's pop-up quotes from its posting. Each role is counted once, at the lowest degree it will accept.

• Name years of experience35
• Name a security clearance16
• Require programming (Python, C++, MATLAB and similar)14
• Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)5
• Set a residency or work-authorization condition4

Where a posting states years of experience, the median ask is 3 years.

Who hires physicists, astronomers and optical engineers in the space industry

Employer	Open roles	Pay stated
Muon Space	1	$171k–$218k/yr
Cowboy Space	2	$145k–$220k/yr
Amazon Leo	4	$136k–$215k/yr
True Anomaly	1	$95k–$155k/yr
Inversion Space	1	$161k–$221k/yr
K2 Space	6	$100k–$220k/yr
Apex	2	$90k–$160k/yr
Viasat	1	$94.5k–$149k/yr
Impulse Space	1	$120k–$150k/yr
RTX	2	$62.9k–$144k/yr
CesiumAstro	2	$133k–$161k/yr
Voyager Technologies	2	$85k–$205k/yr
Blue Origin	7	$144k–$257k/yr
Firefly Aerospace	1	Not stated
The Aerospace Corporation	19	Not stated
OHB	2	Not stated
European Space Agency (ESA)	1	Not stated
Exotrail	1	Not stated
Foundational	1	Not stated
ICEYE	1	Not stated
Satellogic	1	Not stated
Overview Energy	1	$110k–$165k/yr
SpaceX	18	$105k–$285k/yr
Northrop Grumman	3	$108k–$162k/yr
Boeing	1	$53.6k–$72.5k/yr
Rocket Lab	1	$52k/yr
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory	7	$83.8k–$227k/yr
Astranis	3	$60.3k–$145k/yr

Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.

Where these roles are posted

The US states with the most open roles for physicists, astronomers and optical engineers, and the roles posted for a single country. A place name leads to its own page, and a country's count lists the matching roles.

What our research measures about science & data work

Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.

• Who is hiring119 open roles (1.5% of the space roles we read) at 23 employers, 41 of them posted in the last 30 days.
• Where the jobs are16.0% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
• Who can apply68.1% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 37.2% name a security clearance.
• Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Python (71%), C or C++ (27%) and SQL (18%).
• Degrees and experience1.8% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 64.6% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 3 years of experience at the least.
• Pay transparency64.7% of the postings state their pay, at a median $153,000 a year.
• Internships and entry level8 open roles are for someone starting out (6.7% of its open roles).
• Shifts, weekends and travel4.4% of the postings ask for weekend work, 4.4% for overtime or extended hours.
• What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (85.0% of them), about a security clearance (40.0% of them), your GPA (8.3% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (8.3% of them), your salary expectations (36.7% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (38.3% of them).