Also called: Naval Stealth Engineer, Acoustic & Magnetic Signatures Engineer, Degaussing Engineer
Makes Navy ships and submarines harder to detect by shrinking the noise, magnetism and radar echoes they give off.
A signatures engineer might model how a submarine’s propeller hums through the water, or design coils that cancel a steel ship’s magnetic field so mines can’t sense it. They run tests at Navy ranges where ships sail past sensors, then suggest quieter pumps or new shapes. Much of the work is classified.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor’s in engineering or physics; many earn a master’s in acoustics.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Mechanical Engineering, Acoustics, Electrical Engineering, Physics.
Growing about average. Steady Navy and defense contractor demand.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI speeds up acoustic and magnetic simulations, but testing ships and making tradeoffs stays with engineers.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Computer science.
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.