Pure and applied math: proving new truths, breaking codes, optimizing systems, and teaching the next generation.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Mathematician: Discovers new math and uses it to solve hard problems for government, tech, and industry. Typical pay $122k.
Applied Mathematician: Builds mathematical models of real things, like airflow over wings, disease spread, or supply chains. Typical pay $125k.
Cryptologic Mathematician: Makes and breaks secret codes, often for the National Security Agency, the largest employer of mathematicians in the US. Typical pay $118k.
Quantitative Analyst: Uses math and code to find patterns in financial markets and design trading strategies. Typical pay $180k.
Mathematical Biologist: Uses math to understand living things, from how cancer cells grow to how epidemics spread. Typical pay $110k.
Mechanism Design / Game Theory Scientist: Uses game theory to design auctions and markets, like the ones that sell online ads or match medical students to hospitals. Typical pay $150k.
Numerical Analyst: Invents the math recipes (algorithms) that let computers solve huge equations for weather, airplanes and medicine. Typical pay $130k.
Formal Verification Engineer: Uses mathematical proofs to guarantee that software and chips have no hidden bugs. Typical pay $175k.
Geometric Modeling Engineer: Writes the math behind 3D design software, so curves and surfaces in CAD, games and 3D printing come out right. Typical pay $145k.
Computer Algebra Developer: Writes the software inside tools like Mathematica, MATLAB and graphing calculators that solves equations and integrals exactly, step by step. Typical pay $135k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Operations Research Analyst: Uses math to find the best way to do things, like scheduling flights, routing deliveries, or staffing hospitals. Typical pay $91k.
Casino Game Mathematician: Calculates the odds and payouts for casino games and slot machines so they are fun and profitable. Typical pay $105k.
Sportsbook Odds Compiler: Sets and adjusts the betting odds for sports games in real time. Typical pay $95k.
Mathematics Professor: Teaches math courses at a college or university and does original research, from freshman calculus to advanced graduate topics. Typical pay $85k.
High School Math Teacher: Teaches algebra, geometry, calculus, and statistics to teenagers. Typical pay $66k.
Math Curriculum Developer: Designs the lessons, textbooks, and online courses that millions of students learn math from. Typical pay $74k.
Math Test Item Writer: Writes and reviews the questions that appear on standardized tests like the SAT and state exams. Typical pay $62k.
Mathematics Editor: Edits math textbooks, research journals, and educational apps to catch errors and make them clear. Typical pay $70k.
Sports Scheduling Analyst: Uses math and optimization software to build season schedules for pro and college leagues. Typical pay $100k.
Math Enrichment Instructor: Teaches advanced and competition math to motivated kids outside of school. Typical pay $45k.
AI Math Trainer: Writes and checks hard math problems and solutions used to train and test AI models. Typical pay $52k.
Mathematical Typesetter: Turns scientists' messy math papers and textbooks into perfectly formatted pages, equation by equation, using the LaTeX typesetting language. Typical pay $50k.
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.