Also called: Military contract interpreter, Category II linguist
Interprets and translates for U.S. military units at home and overseas, working for defense contractors.
Contract linguists translate documents, interpret during meetings with foreign officers, and support intelligence units. Overseas positions with clearances pay the most.
Pay depends heavily on clearance and deployment location. Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. Fluency in English and a needed language; clearance for higher categories.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Self-taught. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Foreign Languages, Linguistics.
Growing about average. Depends on overseas operations.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. Machine translation handles more documents and calls; trusted interpreters stay for live sensitive work.
Classes: Heritage language classes, English composition, World history.
Official data: O*NET occupation 27-3091.
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.