Salary calculator
What does a space industry job pay?
Choose the kind of work, how experienced you are, your schedule and any shift premium. The figure is built from the pay posted on open roles at rocket, satellite and launch companies today, the same measured pay used across this site, never a guess.
Several years in the role, working on your own
What a posting or offer adds for second shift, third shift or weekend work.
Experienced AI training, 40 hours a week, comes to about
No estimate yet: too few open roles of this kind state their pay.
Too few open AI training roles state their pay today to measure it. A year here is 52 weeks at the hours you set. It estimates what the posted pay adds up to and is no offer: overtime, bonuses, equity, benefits and tax are not included, and a real offer turns on the employer, the site and the level.
Browse every open roleEvery discipline at 40 hours a week
The base pay each kind of work comes to at the experienced level, shift premiums left out. A discipline's name opens who hires for it; its open count opens the roles.
Each range is typical posted 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), taken from open roles wherever enough of them state pay; the per-hour column is that full-time year divided by 2,080 hours. Pay offered only as a ceiling is not counted.
How the estimate is worked out
Each discipline starts from the pay on today’s open roles of that kind, as a year’s pay, and its typical band, 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, with the median as its centre: the measure behind every pay figure here. A posting never says how experienced the person hired will be, so the levels are places inside that band: entry level takes its lower half, experienced the typical band itself and senior or specialist its upper half. No estimate goes past the lowest or highest pay any posting states.
The band’s full-time year becomes an hourly rate at 2,080 hours; your hours and any shift premium then give the week, a month is 52/12 weeks and a year 52 weeks. Pay offered only as a ceiling (“up to $X”) is left out, and a discipline with too little posted pay gets no estimate rather than a guess. Read the methodology or open the live pay tables.
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Common questions
How much does a space industry job pay a year?
Space roles that state their pay typically post $113k–$250k/yr, measured from the roles open today. That is a full-time year of 40 hours a week; the calculator above scales it to the hours you pick, and its table sets every discipline side by side at those hours.
Are space industry jobs paid hourly or by salary?
Both. Engineers and most professional staff are salaried, while technicians, machinists, welders, test operators and production crews are often paid by the hour, with overtime and shift premiums on top. To compare them, every posting goes on one scale, a year's pay, with an hourly rate counted at 2,080 hours (40 a week for 52 weeks); the calculator turns that year back into a week and a month at your hours.
Do entry-level hires earn less?
Usually. A new hire tends to start near the bottom of a discipline's posted band and moves up it with experience and level, while senior, lead and specialist roles sit near the top. Internships and co-ops are mostly paid by the hour, so the per-hour column is the one to read for them.
Which kind of space work pays the most?
Of the disciplines whose open roles state enough pay to measure, RF, Communications & Payloads has the highest median right now, $174k/yr, from 415 posted figures at 52 employers. The table above ranks every discipline at your own hours.
Do shift premiums change what I make?
They can. Factories, test stands and launch sites that run second or third shifts often pay extra per hour for them, and the posting or the offer states how much. Put the dollar amount and the hours a week it covers into the calculator and it is added to your week, month and year.
Is the result before or after tax?
Before. The calculator multiplies the posted base pay by your hours, with a year as 52 weeks of them; tax, deductions, overtime, bonuses, equity and benefits are left out. The pay comes from roles open today at space employers.