Also called: UAS Engineer, Drone Engineer
Designs drones, from palm-sized quadcopters to jet-powered military aircraft with no one on board.
You design the airframe and motors, pick sensors, and then go to a test field to fly the prototype. When it crashes (and early ones do), you figure out why and build the next one.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering.
Growing faster than average (about 6% over 10 years). Part of BLS aerospace engineers category.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI speeds design and simulation; building, crashing and fixing prototypes plus FAA and defense testing stay human in a growing field.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Electronics class, CAD class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2011.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.