Also called: Sponsored Open Source Developer
Keeps a free, public software project alive, reviewing contributions from strangers around the world.
You wake up to 40 new issues and pull requests on a library that millions of apps quietly depend on. You review a fix from a student in Brazil, reply to a bug report from a big company and plan the next release. Pay comes from a company that employs you to do this, foundations, or donations through GitHub Sponsors.
Very variable: some are funded full-time by big tech companies, others earn small sponsorships on top of a day job.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 4 years after high school. No set degree; reputation is built by contributing code publicly for years.
Ways in: Self-taught, 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science.
Growing about average. Growing slowly as companies fund the projects they depend on.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI floods projects with code and pull requests to review; trusted human maintainers and community leaders stay needed.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, English, Debate or speech.
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.