Also called: Incident Commander, Type 1 IC
Takes overall command of a large wildfire, managing thousands of firefighters, aircraft, and evacuations.
Incident commanders lead teams that set up a fire camp like a small city, plan daily strategy, coordinate air tankers and crews, and brief the public and officials. Top-level ICs have decades of fire experience.
Federal GS pay; overtime and hazard pay often add 50%+ in busy seasons.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 20 years after high school. Decades of wildland fire experience and qualifications through the national incident system.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Certification, 4-year college. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Forestry, Fire Science, Natural Resources.
Growing about average. Wildland fire seasons are getting longer; federal wildland workforce is being reorganized (approx.).
Low risk for 10 years. Fire-spread models and satellite maps sharpen plans; commanding thousands of people and evacuations stays human.
Classes: Earth science, Leadership class, Speech, Geography.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-9161.
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.