Careers · Compensation
Space Industry Salaries (2026): What 58 Roles Pay, by Level and City
What space industry jobs pay in 2026: salary ranges for 58 roles from propulsion engineer to mission director, by seniority and by city, plus the ranges employers state in live postings. How to read an estimate, what clearance adds, and how to negotiate.
In this guide
The short answer
Mid-career engineer, US: about $112k to $161k base across the 14 engineering roles in our dataset. The median role of all 58 sits at $142k. Propulsion, GNC and systems roles run above that; technician and coordinator roles below; directors and VPs well above. Employers stating a range in live postings right now (526 of 9,880 roles) quote $19k–$251k from entry to the most senior level listed.
Two things move a space salary more than the job title: where you sit (a Los Angeles or Seattle role pays about 15 to 20 percent more than the same role in Denver or Huntsville) and what you are cleared for. Company type matters less than people assume. The rest of this page is the tables.
What 58 roles pay
Curated benchmark dataset, US base salary, as of August 2026. Median with the 25th to 75th percentile band. Sorted by median within each group. The full explorer with skills, top employers and growth rate is on the talent page.
Engineering · 14 roles
| Role | Median | P25–P75 |
|---|---|---|
| Propulsion Engineer | $160k | $125k–$195k |
| ADCS/GNC Engineer | $158k | $128k–$188k |
| Software Engineer (Flight/Ground) | $155k | $120k–$195k |
| Avionics Engineer | $155k | $120k–$185k |
| Data Engineer (Space Analytics) | $155k | $125k–$185k |
| ECLSS/Life Support Engineer |
What postings actually state (live)
Computed at page load from the 526 open postings on the jobs board that state a salary range. Averages of the stated minimum and maximum, by category. Postings that state a range skew toward states with pay-transparency laws (California, Colorado, Washington, New York), so these run a little above a national average.
| Category | Stated min | Stated max | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | $132k | $183k | 329 |
| Operations | $112k | $146k | 65 |
| Business | $127k | $168k | 27 |
| Research | $150k | $300k | 1 |
| Legal | $161k | $205k | 5 |
| Manufacturing | $105k | $145k | 99 |
By seniority
Junior, mid and senior bands from the benchmark dataset for the ten most-posted engineering roles, next to what employers state in live postings by seniority level.
Benchmark bands · engineering
| Role | Junior | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propulsion Engineer | $85k–$120k | $120k–$175k | $165k–$240k |
| ADCS/GNC Engineer | $90k–$125k | $120k–$170k | $160k–$220k |
| Software Engineer (Flight/Ground) | $85k–$125k | $120k–$170k | $160k–$245k |
| Avionics Engineer | $85k–$115k | $115k–$165k | $160k–$225k |
| Data Engineer (Space Analytics) | $90k–$120k | $120k–$170k | $160k–$220k |
| ECLSS/Life Support Engineer | $90k–$120k |
By city
The dataset's location multipliers, applied to the national figure. Denver / Colorado Springs is the reference (1.00). These are the same multipliers the estimator uses for the salary band on job listings.
| Metro | Multiplier | Mid-career engineer |
|---|---|---|
| LA / Bay Area | ×1.20 | $134k–$193k |
| Seattle / Kent | ×1.15 | $128k–$185k |
| DC Metro / Northern Virginia | ×1.10 | $123k–$177k |
| Denver / Colorado Springs | ×1.00 | $112k–$161k |
| Houston / Clear Lake | ×0.95 | $106k–$153k |
| Remote / Distributed |
How our salary bands are made
Every listing on the jobs board shows a salary band. There are two kinds and the label tells you which:
- Stated by employer. The posting includes a range. We show it unchanged.
- SpaceNexus estimate. The posting has no range. We match the title against the 58 benchmark roles (a “Senior GNC Engineer” matches the GNC engineer role at the senior band), apply the city multiplier from the table above, and round to the nearest $5k. If the title matches nothing we know, we show no band rather than a guess.
The estimate is base salary only. It does not include equity, bonus, overtime, relocation or the value of a clearance. Treat it as the opening number for a conversation, not the number on the offer letter.
Negotiating a space offer
- Anchor on the role, level and city, not the company. Use the benchmark median for your role at your level, times the city multiplier, as the number you name first.
- Quote a stated range from a competing posting. The live table above tells you what employers in the same category are publishing right now; a posting from a competitor with a range is the most persuasive comparison you can bring.
- Trade base for things the company can give cheaply: a signing bonus (one-off, does not compound their budget), relocation, an earlier review date, or a title bump that moves you into the next band.
- If you hold a clearance, say so in the first sentence of the negotiation. It is the reason they can close the requisition this quarter.
- Get the level in writing. Two offers with the same base can be a full band apart in what the next promotion pays.
Frequently asked
How much does a space industry engineer make?
Mid-career engineers in the curated dataset on this page sit between roughly $110k and $160k base in the United States, with propulsion, GNC and systems roles at the top of that band and senior staff above $150k. The live table shows what employers are stating in current postings; those ranges run higher than base-only benchmarks because postings often quote total cash.
Does SpaceX pay more or less than the primes?
Base pay at the newer launch companies is usually at or slightly below the primes for the same level; the difference is equity and hours. Prime contractors (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris) pay steadier base with defined-benefit or matched retirement and paid overtime for many technician grades.
How much is a security clearance worth?
Postings that require an active TS/SCI cluster around 10 to 20 percent above the same title without a clearance, because the employer cannot hire and wait a year for adjudication. A Secret clearance adds less; eligibility to obtain one adds almost nothing until it is granted.
Are the salary bands on SpaceNexus job listings real?
When the employer states a range, we show it and label it "stated by employer". When they do not, we show a SpaceNexus estimate built from the curated dataset, matched by title and seniority and adjusted for location, labelled "estimate". The estimate is a starting point for a conversation, not an offer.
Do remote space jobs pay less?
Remote-eligible roles are mostly software, analysis and program roles, and they are usually benchmarked to a national rate rather than the LA or Seattle premium. Expect the Denver-level figure in the city table rather than the coastal one.
What do space technicians and machinists make?
Manufacturing and test technicians in the dataset run from the high $40ks for entry roles to above $100k for senior integration and test leads, and overtime during launch campaigns pushes take-home well above base.
Keep going
- The live jobs board: every posting with its salary band, filterable by category, company and remote.
- Salaries by company: every employer with three or more open roles, with its median band by role family and location and how it sits against the benchmark.
- Salary explorer: all 58 roles with skills, top employers and growth rate.
- How to get a job in the space industry: where the jobs are and what the postings ask for.
- Hiring?: post a role with a stated range; postings with a range get more applicants.
Benchmark figures are from the SpaceNexus salary dataset (as of August 2026), compiled from stated ranges in postings, public pay bands and industry surveys, US base salary. Live figures are computed from job postings aggregated from company career sites at the moment the page loads (board as of Oct 8, 2026). Nothing here is an offer or a guarantee of pay.