Also called: Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning Engineer
Programs robots to see, move, and make decisions, from warehouse robots to humanoids.
You teach a robot arm to pick up oddly shaped packages, watch it drop a box of cereal, and tweak its grip and vision code until it succeeds 99.9% of the time.
Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's required; master's or PhD common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering.
Growing much faster than average. Fast-growing with warehouse automation and humanoid robot startups.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Robot foundation models are growing the field; AI writes code, but getting robots to work in the real world stays human.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP Physics, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
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.