Also called: Aircraft Refinisher, Livery Painter
Strips, preps, and paints aircraft, including the airline logos and liveries you see at the gate.
Stripping an airliner can take days, then you mask every window and seam before spraying primer and multiple colors in a huge paint hangar. You wear a full respirator suit, and the result is a 150-foot work of art.
Based on BLS painters of transportation equipment, plus aerospace premium.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. On-the-job training; auto body painting experience transfers.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Trade school. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Auto Body / Refinishing Technology.
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years). Steady.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Robot painters run on some new-build lines; prep and repaint work at shops stays human.
Age 18+. One way to start: Apply to aircraft paint shops or repair stations as a paint prep helper; they train you on respirators
Classes: Auto body CTE, Art, Chemistry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 51-9124.
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.