The lawyers, brokers, insurers, and analysts who make the business of shipping work.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Admiralty / Maritime Lawyer: A lawyer specializing in the special laws of the sea: ship collisions, cargo claims, injured sailors, and salvage. Typical pay $151k.
Ship Broker: Matches cargo owners with ships for hire, earning a commission on deals worth millions. Typical pay $140k.
Ship Finance Banker: Arranges loans and investments to buy ships that cost $50 million to $250 million each. Typical pay $140k.
Marine Average Adjuster: Calculates how losses are shared when a ship sacrifices cargo or gets into trouble to save the voyage. Typical pay $120k.
Bunker Fuel Trader: Buys and sells the fuel that powers ships around the world. Typical pay $115k.
Fleet / Vessel Operations Manager: Manages a fleet of ships for a shipping company: crews, schedules, repairs, and costs. Typical pay $135k.
Marine Claims Adjuster: Investigates insurance claims when ships, boats, or cargo are damaged or lost. Typical pay $76k.
Licensed Customs Broker: Gets imported goods legally through customs, classifying products and calculating tariffs. Typical pay $70k.
Chartering Manager: Hires ships to carry a company's oil, grain, or goods around the world. Typical pay $105k.
Maritime Compliance Officer: Makes sure shipping companies follow environmental, safety, and sanctions laws. Typical pay $78k.
Maritime Logistician: Plans how goods move by ship across the world as efficiently as possible. Typical pay $80k.
Maritime Paralegal: Supports maritime lawyers with research, documents, and case files. Typical pay $61k.
Demurrage Analyst: Calculates the fees owed when ships or containers are delayed beyond their agreed time. Typical pay $82k.
Ocean Freight Pricing Analyst: Sets prices for shipping containers between ports and tracks fast-changing freight markets. Typical pay $79k.
Marine Casualty Investigator: Investigates ship collisions, sinkings, fires, and deaths at sea to find what went wrong. Typical pay $92k.
Arrested Vessel Custodian: Takes charge of ships seized by a federal court over unpaid debts, keeping them safe, guarded and maintained until they are sold. Typical pay $65k.
Ship Registry Officer: Registers ocean ships under a nation’s flag, issuing their papers and recording mortgages, often for registries run from Virginia. Typical pay $78k.
Starter: fastest way in
Freight Forwarder: Arranges shipping for companies, booking space on ships and handling paperwork. Typical pay $50k.
Ship Agent: Takes care of a ship's every need while it is in port. Typical pay $52k.
Crewing Coordinator: Hires and schedules the crews who work aboard ships. Typical pay $54k.
Vessel Documentation Examiner: Reviews applications to officially document U.S. boats and ships, checking ownership, names and mortgages for the Coast Guard. 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.