Uses math and computer models to help organizations make better decisions, like routing trucks or scheduling flights.
You build a model to figure out how many nurses a hospital needs each hour, test it on last year's data, and find a schedule that saves overtime. Then you explain the results to managers without using any equations.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in math, engineering or analytics; many have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science.
Growing much faster than average (about 21% over 10 years). One of the fastest-growing business jobs.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI writes code and runs models faster, so fewer junior analysts are needed; framing the right problem stays human.
Classes: AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Computer Science A.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-2031.
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.