Also called: Thin-Film Engineer, Coating Scientist
Designs microscopically thin layers that make lenses anti-glare, mirrors super-reflective, and sunglasses polarized.
You design stacks of layers each thinner than a soap bubble, then run vacuum chambers that deposit them atom by atom onto glass. When a batch of laser mirrors comes out, you measure exactly how much light bounces off. The coating on your eyeglasses came from someone like you.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in physics, materials science, or optics.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Physics, Materials Science, Optical Engineering, Chemistry.
Growing about average. BLS does not project this specialty separately; rating estimated from related occupations.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI designs layer stacks quickly; running vacuum chambers and fixing bad batches stay hands-on.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Chemistry, Algebra II.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2199.
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