Engineering for a cleaner planet: safe drinking water, sewage treatment, clean air, toxic cleanup and cutting waste and carbon.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Principal Environmental Engineer: Senior engineer who leads big cleanup, water and permitting projects for companies and governments. Typical pay $145k.
PFAS Treatment Engineer: Designs systems that remove 'forever chemicals' (PFAS) from drinking water and polluted soil. Typical pay $120k.
Desalination Engineer: Designs plants that turn seawater or sewage into clean drinking water. Typical pay $120k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Environmental Engineer: Uses engineering, chemistry and biology to solve pollution problems in water, air and soil. Typical pay $104k.
Drinking Water Treatment Engineer: Designs and upgrades the plants that make river, lake and well water safe to drink. Typical pay $98k.
Wastewater Engineer: Designs sewer systems and treatment plants that clean wastewater before it goes back to rivers. Typical pay $98k.
Air Quality Engineer: Measures and controls air pollution from factories, power plants and vehicles. Typical pay $98k.
Remediation Engineer: Designs ways to clean up polluted soil and groundwater at old factories, spills and military bases. Typical pay $95k.
Solid Waste & Landfill Engineer: Designs landfills, recycling and composting facilities so trash doesn't pollute land, air or water. Typical pay $92k.
Sustainability Engineer: Measures a company's carbon footprint and waste, then engineers ways to shrink them. Typical pay $90k.
Environmental Engineering Technician: Carries out field and lab work that helps environmental engineers monitor and fix pollution. Typical pay $57k.
Water & Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator: Runs the pumps, tanks and chemical systems that make water safe to drink or clean enough to return to rivers. Typical pay $56k.
Green Infrastructure Engineer: Designs rain gardens, green roofs and porous pavement that soak up stormwater and stop floods. Typical pay $95k.
Climate Resilience Engineer: Helps cities and companies redesign roads, power and water systems for heat waves, floods and sea-level rise. Typical pay $105k.
Source Emissions (Stack) Testing Technician: Climbs smokestacks at power plants and factories to sample what is coming out and prove it meets air-pollution limits. Typical pay $58k.
Industrial Water Treatment Specialist: Keeps the water in cooling towers and boilers from scaling, rusting or growing Legionella bacteria that can make people sick. Typical pay $82k.
Starter: fastest way in
Hazardous Materials Removal Worker: Removes asbestos, lead, mold and toxic chemicals safely from buildings and spill sites. Typical pay $50k.
Groundwater Sampling Technician: Collects water, soil and air samples from polluted sites so labs can test them. Typical pay $46k.
Industrial Pretreatment Inspector: Inspects factories and restaurants to make sure they don't dump harmful chemicals or grease into the sewer. Typical pay $54k.
Geomembrane Liner Technician: Rolls out and heat-welds giant plastic liners that keep landfill juice, mining chemicals and pond water from leaking into the ground. Typical pay $46k.
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.