Also called: Payload Systems Engineer
Builds the 'business end' of a satellite: the camera, radio, or science instrument that does its actual job.
You work with customers to define what the satellite must see or transmit, then lead the team designing the payload. Testing includes pointing a satellite camera at artificial targets in a lab.
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 electrical, aerospace engineering, or physics.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics.
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 trade studies; building and testing cameras and radios that work in space stays human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Electronics class, Computer science.
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.