What it pays
Government survey numbers — not estimates, not ads.
Half of all Physical Scientists, All Other in the U.S. earn more than $122,570 a year — the middle 80% land between $67,000 and $195,190. About 22,300 people in the U.S. do this work. Figures are for the U.S. occupation group “Physical Scientists, All Other”. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, published 2025.) In India, Professionals earn about ₹38,298 a month on average — around ₹4.6 lakh a year (government PLFS survey via ILOSTAT, occupation-family figure).
$122,570typical pay / year
22,300people in this work
$195,190+top 10% earn
₹4.6 lakha year in India (family avg)
Think you get this job?Six quick questions on how it really works — with a hint and the reason behind every answer.
Test yourself →The work, task by task
These are the real jobs-to-be-done, not a wish list. Each task shows where we found it, and the prompt underneath is written for that exact task.
Learning4
Set up or maintain remote sensing data systems
+Bring the remote sensing stack back to full operation: check last night's sensor ingest logs, restart the…
Set up or maintain remote sensing data systems
+Bring the remote sensing stack back to full operation: check last night's sensor ingest logs, restart the data ingestion pipeline if stalled, verify georeferencing parameters match our Leica survey benchmarks, and report any missing tiles by noon to Field Ops.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2Apache Kafkajob descriptionsO*NET
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Organize and maintain geospatial data
+Reconcile the project geodatabase: validate coordinate reference systems against the published EPSG codes,…
Organize and maintain geospatial data
+Reconcile the project geodatabase: validate coordinate reference systems against the published EPSG codes, repair corrupt feature geometries, compress historic LiDAR tiles to save 20 percent storage, and publish the updated index to the team by 5pm.
The tools that do the workApache HadoopApache Hivejob descriptionsO*NET
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Train technicians in remote sensing technology
+Run a half-day workshop for the field technicians: walk them through sensor calibration math, ground control…
Train technicians in remote sensing technology
+Run a half-day workshop for the field technicians: walk them through sensor calibration math, ground control placement using geodesy best practices, live-demo photogrammetric alignment on a recent flight, and hand out a one-page checklist for preflight checks.
The tools that do the workAtlassian JIRAjob descriptionsO*NET
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Compile and format image data for usefulness
+Prepare the imagery deliverable: ingest the latest flights, apply the radiometric corrections and…
Compile and format image data for usefulness
+Prepare the imagery deliverable: ingest the latest flights, apply the radiometric corrections and orthorectification, tile and pyramid the image set for fast review, and export a clean set of TIFFs and a proof catalog to send to the analyst group by tomorrow morning.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2Apache Kafkajob descriptionsO*NET
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Analysing2
Collect supporting climatic or field survey data
+Collect the supporting environmental data for the survey tranche: pull the nearest weather station hourly…
Collect supporting climatic or field survey data
+Collect the supporting environmental data for the survey tranche: pull the nearest weather station hourly records for the flight window, retrieve soil-moisture logs from the field bureaus, align timestamps to UTC, and attach the datasets to the flight package before submission to modeling.
The tools that do the workAmazon DynamoDBESCOjob descriptions
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Discuss project goals, equipment, or methodologies
+Hold a planning call with Project Lead Marta and Equipment Manager Hugo to agree the next three flights'…
Discuss project goals, equipment, or methodologies
+Hold a planning call with Project Lead Marta and Equipment Manager Hugo to agree the next three flights' goals: list required sensors, define ground control density, and pick methodologies we will use so I can lock the acquisition plan and order the calibration checks.
The tools that do the workAtlassian JIRAjob descriptionsO*NET
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The daily work14
Develop automated routines to correct for the presence of image distorting artifacts, such as ground vegetation.
+Create and test an automated routine that detects and removes ground-vegetation distortions from aerial…
Develop automated routines to correct for the presence of image distorting artifacts, such as ground vegetation.
+Create and test an automated routine that detects and removes ground-vegetation distortions from aerial imagery, validate it on three coastal and three inland flights, and produce corrected orthomosaics plus a short methods note by next Wednesday.
The tools that do the workApache HadoopApache HiveO*NET
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Participate in fieldwork.
+Join the two-day field campaign at the marsh on Friday, run the ground-control survey, calibrate the camera…
Participate in fieldwork.
+Join the two-day field campaign at the marsh on Friday, run the ground-control survey, calibrate the camera rig, collect reference plots for vegetation cover, and hand the calibration logs and GPS checkpoints to Casey before flying.
The tools that do the workO*NET
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Develop new sensor systems or analytical techniques
+Design and prototype a novel sensor-processing chain to separate canopy and bare-ground signals, build a…
Develop new sensor systems or analytical techniques
+Design and prototype a novel sensor-processing chain to separate canopy and bare-ground signals, build a simulation with synthetic terrain and vegetation, and deliver performance benchmarks and a development plan in four weeks.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2job descriptions
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Solve problems in urban planning
+Analyze city-scale aerial surveys to map sight-line occlusions and propose three interventions to improve…
Solve problems in urban planning
+Analyze city-scale aerial surveys to map sight-line occlusions and propose three interventions to improve pedestrian visibility, include error bounds from photogrammetric uncertainty, and email the brief to Maya in Planning by Tuesday.
The tools that do the workApache Hadoopjob descriptions
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Solve problems in homeland security
+Produce a prioritized list of suspicious-activity indicators from recent airborne imagery, cross-check…
Solve problems in homeland security
+Produce a prioritized list of suspicious-activity indicators from recent airborne imagery, cross-check against known infrastructure coordinates, and deliver a one-page threat assessment to the security lead by Friday noon.
The tools that do the workAmazon Redshiftjob descriptions
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Collect airborne data
+Plan and execute two morning flights to collect oblique and nadir airborne data over the study area, record…
Collect airborne data
+Plan and execute two morning flights to collect oblique and nadir airborne data over the study area, record sensor settings and environmental conditions, and hand raw files plus a flight log to Jordan within 24 hours.
The tools that do the workESCO
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Study radar images
+Examine the radar image stack from the Baltic over June, align frames to a common geodetic grid, calculate…
Study radar images
+Examine the radar image stack from the Baltic over June, align frames to a common geodetic grid, calculate surface motion vectors and coherence, flag frames with >30% noise, and produce a short report with the displaced-feature coordinates and confidence estimates.
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Possess visual literacy
+Review the satellite and aerial imagery set for the coastal survey, annotate recurring visual patterns and…
Possess visual literacy
+Review the satellite and aerial imagery set for the coastal survey, annotate recurring visual patterns and likely sensor artifacts, translate those observations into a brief taxonomy of visual cues and misreads for the mapping team.
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Determine geographical points
+Determine the precise latitude and longitude of the three impact points from the 2019 field survey using the…
Determine geographical points
+Determine the precise latitude and longitude of the three impact points from the 2019 field survey using the surveyed control marks, apply the WGS84 geodetic solution, and report coordinates with uncertainty to three decimal minutes by Friday.
The tools that do the workBashESCO
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Execute analytical mathematical calculations
+Run the analytical calculations to convert raw baseline measurements into distance and azimuth solutions,…
Execute analytical mathematical calculations
+Run the analytical calculations to convert raw baseline measurements into distance and azimuth solutions, propagate measurement uncertainty through the formulas, and produce a one-page table of corrected values and error bounds for the team meeting on Tuesday.
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Study aerial photos
+Review the aerial survey strips over Sector B, mark visible tie points and parallax errors across overlapping…
Study aerial photos
+Review the aerial survey strips over Sector B, mark visible tie points and parallax errors across overlapping frames, note oblique angles and cloud cover that affect interpretation, and hand over annotated frame list to the photogrammetry lead by Wednesday.
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Keep task records
+Log today's tasks: three GPS transects, two photo campaigns, calculation runs and their outputs, who did each…
Keep task records
+Log today's tasks: three GPS transects, two photo campaigns, calculation runs and their outputs, who did each step, time stamps and outstanding follow-ups, and circulate the record to Priya and Martin by end of day.
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Collect data using GPS
+Plan and document a GPS data-collection run for the ridge line tomorrow morning: list observer names,…
Collect data using GPS
+Plan and document a GPS data-collection run for the ridge line tomorrow morning: list observer names, receiver serial numbers, sampling rate, base station coordinates, QC checks and expected file names so the field team collects consistent raw logs.
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Remote sensing techniques
+Design the remote sensing workflow for the vegetation index study: specify sensor bands required, ground…
Remote sensing techniques
+Design the remote sensing workflow for the vegetation index study: specify sensor bands required, ground truth sample locations, processing steps for radiometric correction and classification, and deliver the processing checklist to the analyst by Friday.
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Says who?
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Built on public evidence: O*NET®, ESCO, Wikipedia, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ILOSTAT. All sources & licenses
Built on public evidence: O*NET®, ESCO, Wikipedia, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ILOSTAT. All sources & licenses