Finding pollution, cleaning it up, and making sure companies and construction projects follow environmental laws, from toxic waste sites to oil spills to buried bombs.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Environmental Consulting Principal: Leads big environmental projects and teams at a consulting firm, winning clients and signing off on high-stakes reports. Typical pay $150k.
Environmental Attorney: Handles lawsuits and regulations about pollution, endangered species, energy projects, and land use. Typical pay $150k.
Environmental Toxicologist: Figures out how dangerous chemicals are to people and wildlife, and what level of exposure is safe. Typical pay $115k.
Environmental Engineer: Designs systems to clean up contaminated soil and water, control air pollution, and manage waste. Typical pay $104k.
Environmental Scientist: Investigates pollution in soil, water, and air, and recommends how to fix it. Typical pay $82k.
Industrial Hygienist: Measures workers' exposure to chemicals, noise, dust, and radiation and designs ways to protect them. Typical pay $85k.
Environmental Planner (NEPA Specialist): Writes the environmental impact studies required before highways, pipelines, and dams can be built. Typical pay $80k.
Wetland Scientist: Maps exactly where wetlands begin and end on a property, which decides whether and how land can be developed. Typical pay $70k.
Air Quality Specialist: Monitors air pollution and writes or reviews permits that limit what factories and power plants emit. Typical pay $80k.
Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Technician: Finds and safely removes old bombs, shells, and munitions from former military ranges so land can be reused. Typical pay $72k.
Ecological Risk Assessor: Figures out how pollution at a site could harm fish, birds, plants, and other wildlife, and what cleanup is needed. Typical pay $105k.
Environmental Site Assessor: Investigates whether a property has pollution before it is bought or developed. Typical pay $82k.
Environmental Geologist: Studies soil and groundwater to track pollution and design cleanups. Typical pay $90k.
Remediation System Technician: Runs and maintains the pumps and treatment systems that clean polluted groundwater at cleanup sites. Typical pay $55k.
Vapor Intrusion Specialist: Tests whether toxic fumes from polluted soil or groundwater are seeping up into homes, schools and offices, and designs systems to vent them away. Typical pay $85k.
Environmental Data Validator: Checks lab results for polluted soil and water line by line to make sure the tests were done right before cleanup decisions are made. Typical pay $70k.
Starter: fastest way in
Environmental Field Technician: Collects soil, water, and air samples in the field and operates monitoring equipment. Typical pay $51k.
Hazardous Materials Removal Worker: Removes asbestos, lead, toxic chemicals, and contaminated soil while wearing protective suits. Typical pay $50k.
Oil Spill Response Technician: Rushes to oil and chemical spills on land and water to contain and clean them up. Typical pay $50k.
Environmental Drill Rig Operator: Runs drilling rigs that take soil cores and install monitoring wells at contaminated sites. Typical pay $54k.
Biological Monitor: Watches construction sites to make sure work does not harm protected wildlife like tortoises, birds, and frogs. Typical pay $52k.
Mold Remediation Technician: Removes mold and repairs water damage in homes and buildings after leaks and floods. Typical pay $49k.
Paleontological Monitor: Watches construction crews dig at building sites and pipelines, stopping work when fossils turn up so they can be saved before bulldozers destroy them. Typical pay $48k.
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.