The fire part of space: inventing, building, and test-firing rocket engines, fuels, and thrusters.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Rocket Propulsion Engineer: Designs rocket engines and the tanks, pipes, and valves that feed them fuel and oxygen. Typical pay $135k.
Combustion Devices Engineer: Specializes in the hottest part of the rocket: the injector and chamber where fuel and oxygen burn. Typical pay $140k.
Rocket Turbopump Engineer: Designs the turbopumps that shove tons of super-cold propellant into a rocket engine every second. Typical pay $140k.
Solid Rocket Motor Engineer: Designs solid-fuel rocket motors used in missiles, boosters, and sounding rockets. Typical pay $128k.
Electric Propulsion (Ion Thruster) Engineer: Builds ion and plasma thrusters that push spacecraft with electricity instead of fire, gently but for years. Typical pay $140k.
Propulsion Test Engineer: Runs the test stands where rocket engines are fired on the ground before they ever fly. Typical pay $115k.
Propellant Chemist: Invents and tests the chemical fuels and oxidizers that rockets burn. Typical pay $112k.
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Engineer: Designs rocket engines that use a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen, for faster trips to Mars. Typical pay $140k.
Valve & Fluid Components Engineer: Designs the valves and regulators that control super-cold propellants in rockets. Typical pay $125k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Cryogenic Systems Engineer: Handles liquids colder than -250°F, like liquid oxygen, hydrogen, and methane, that fuel modern rockets. Typical pay $108k.
Engine Test Stand Technician: Sets up, plumbs, and operates the giant steel stands where rocket engines are test-fired. Typical pay $78k.
Propellant Handler / Fuel Technician: Loads dangerous rocket propellants like hydrazine wearing protective suits that look like spacesuits. Typical pay $62k.
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Technician: Uses X-rays, ultrasound, and dyes to find invisible cracks in rocket and aircraft parts without damaging them. Typical pay $65k.
Rocket Engine Assembly Technician: Builds rocket engines by hand at launch companies, torquing bolts, installing parts like injectors, and leak-checking every joint before engine tests. Typical pay $72k.
Rocket Test Site Assistant: Keeps a remote rocket test site running: moving equipment, maintaining buildings, and supporting test days. Typical pay $46k.
Aerospace Pyrotechnics Technician: Installs and tests the small explosive bolts and charges that separate rocket stages and release satellites. Typical pay $54k.
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.