The engineers and designers who figure out how ships, submarines, and ocean structures float, move, and survive.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Principal / Chief Naval Architect: Leads design of entire ships, from ferries to warships, and signs off on how they float, move, and survive. Typical pay $170k.
Naval Nuclear Propulsion Engineer: Designs, tests, or oversees the nuclear reactors that power Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. Typical pay $127k.
Hydrodynamicist: Studies how water flows around hulls and propellers to make ships faster, quieter, and more efficient. Typical pay $130k.
Classification Society Surveyor: Inspects ships for groups like the American Bureau of Shipping to certify they are safe to sail. Typical pay $118k.
Submarine Design Engineer: Designs systems for nuclear submarines at shipyards like Electric Boat or Newport News. Typical pay $115k.
Marine Electrical Engineer: Designs power systems for ships, including new battery-electric and hybrid vessels. Typical pay $110k.
Marine Propulsion Engineer: Designs the engines, propellers, and electric drives that push ships through the water. Typical pay $112k.
Ship Decarbonization Engineer: Helps ships switch to cleaner fuels like methanol, ammonia, or batteries to cut emissions. Typical pay $112k.
Sea Trials Test Engineer: Tests brand-new ships at sea to prove they meet speed, safety, and performance promises. Typical pay $112k.
Ship Signatures Engineer: Makes Navy ships and submarines harder to detect by shrinking the noise, magnetism and radar echoes they give off. Typical pay $125k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Naval Architect: Designs ships and boats so they float, stay stable, and move efficiently. Typical pay $106k.
Marine Engineer (Design): Designs the engines, propulsion, electrical, and piping systems inside ships. Typical pay $106k.
Ocean Engineer: Designs structures and equipment that survive in the ocean: moorings, buoys, subsea pipelines, and wave-energy devices. Typical pay $105k.
Marine Structural Engineer: Makes sure a ship's steel or aluminum structure is strong enough to survive storms and decades at sea. Typical pay $100k.
Yacht Designer: Designs sailboats, powerboats, and superyachts that are both beautiful and seaworthy. Typical pay $92k.
Ship Design Drafter / CAD Designer: Turns engineers' designs into the detailed 3D models and drawings shipyards build from. Typical pay $65k.
Marine Engineering Technician: Supports engineers by testing equipment, collecting data, and checking systems aboard ships. Typical pay $66k.
Weight and Stability Engineer: Tracks the weight of every item on a ship so it floats level and stays stable. Typical pay $95k.
Shipbuilding Quality Inspector: Checks welds, pipes, and parts in a shipyard to make sure they meet the design. Typical pay $48k.
Shipyard Production Planner: Schedules the thousands of jobs needed to build or repair a ship. Typical pay $54k.
Mold Loft / Lofting Technician: Converts ship drawings into the exact cutting patterns used to shape steel plates. Typical pay $52k.
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.