Key findings
- 1
Cars and robotaxis (281), Autonomous trucks (35) and Drones and aircraft (31) had the most open roles on 9 Oct 2026, of the 3 vehicles named in role titles.
- 2
98.9% of the 351 open AV & Drone Operators roles name a vehicle in their title; the other 4 name none (often a robotics or operations technician whose description mentions vehicle work).
Figure 1
Open roles by vehicle
How many operator roles are there for cars and robotaxis, trucks, drones and vessels?
| Market | Open on 9 Oct 2026 | New listings |
|---|---|---|
| Cars and robotaxisSmall sample | 281 | 16 |
| Autonomous trucksSmall sample | 35 | 6 |
| Drones and aircraftSmall sample | 31 | 16 |
Sample. 347 of the 351 vehicle and drone operator roles open at the end of 9 Oct 2026 name a vehicle in their title; 3 markets have open roles. New listings from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026.
A role counts for a vehicle when it is AV & Drone Operators work and its title names the vehicle (for example 'Autonomous Vehicle Safety Operator', 'Class A CDL Driver', 'UAS Drone Pilot', 'ASV Operator'). Road roles whose title names a truck, a CDL or Class A count as trucks. A title naming no vehicle, or both a road and an aerial one, counts for none.
Change compares open roles at the start and the end of the window on the employers tracked throughout; it is marked as a small sample under 10 roles at the start.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
Figure 2
Advertised hourly pay by vehicle
Which vehicle pays its operators the most?
| Market | Median per hour | Middle half |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous trucks | $35 | $32 to $35 |
| Cars and robotaxis | $27 | $26 to $28 |
Sample. Roles open on 9 Oct 2026 that state an hourly rate; markets with at least 8 such roles.
Pay is the hourly figure the posting advertises (the middle of a stated range). The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
Figure 3
Applicant demand per open role, by vehicle
Which vehicle draws the most applicants per opening, and which is short of them?
| Market | Clicks per role a week | Index |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous trucksSmall sample | 0.03 | 0.45x |
| Cars and robotaxisSmall sample | 0.01 | 0.13x |
| Drones and aircraftSmall sample | 0.00 | 0.00x |
Sample. Apply clicks on RobotTraining.jobs on roles naming each market, from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026, against the days those roles were open.
Clicks per role a week = apply clicks / (open role-days / 7). Index 1.00 is the average across every open role on the site.
Rows with fewer than 30 clicks or 3 roles open on an average day are marked as a small sample.
RobotTraining.jobs shows visitors the roles open in their country first, which affects roles limited to some countries.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
Figure 4
Who hires for each vehicle
Is each vehicle's hiring spread across employers or held by one?
| Market | Largest employer | Its share | Employers listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cars and robotaxis | TSMG | 91.1% | 10 |
| Autonomous trucks | TSMG | 28.6% | 7 |
| Drones and aircraft | Anduril Industries | 22.6% | 10 |
Sample. Roles open on 9 Oct 2026, by the employer that lists them.
A high share means one employer holds most of the openings: an applicant has few alternatives, and that employer sets the going rate.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
Figure 5
Where each vehicle's roles are open
Can operators apply from anywhere, or only from some countries?
| Market | Open worldwide | Only listed countries |
|---|---|---|
| Drones and aircraft | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Cars and robotaxis | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Autonomous trucks | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Sample. Roles open on 9 Oct 2026; shares of each market's own open roles.
The rule is read from each posting's location text. The rest of each row is roles open worldwide except some countries, or with no rule stated.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
Figure 6
What each vehicle's roles require
Which licences, checks and minimum ages does each kind of vehicle work require?
No data in this window.
Sample. 0 vehicle and drone operator roles open on 9 Oct 2026 whose job board publishes a full description, by the vehicle their title names.
Read with the requirements report's reader: a licence, an age or a check counts only when the description requires it (a preference does not), except the drug test, which counts wherever it is mentioned.
Rows with fewer than 10 roles read are marked as a small sample.
Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work, live data.
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Method and definitions
The public job boards of the robot training employers and programs this site tracks, read every day. Vehicles are read from role titles; licences from the full descriptions; apply clicks are made on RobotTraining.jobs. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.
- Vehicle of a role
- A role in the AV and drone operator kind of work counts for a vehicle when its title names one: a car, robotaxi or autonomous vehicle; a truck, a CDL or Class A (trucks); a drone, UAS, aircraft or flight test (drones and aircraft); a vessel or boat. A title naming no vehicle, or both a road and an aerial one, counts for none.
- Licence required
- A driver's license, a commercial driver's license (CDL), an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate or a pilot license that the description requires (a preference does not count), read with the requirements report's reader.
- Open role
- A role listed by a given day and still in its employer's feed that day.
- New listing
- A role that first appeared during the window at an employer already tracked before that week. An employer's first week in this dataset is its back catalogue and is not counted as new.
- Advertised pay
- The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range). Medians need at least 8 roles stating a rate; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
- Clicks per open role a week
- Apply clicks on RobotTraining.jobs divided by the days the roles were open, times 7.
- Demand index
- A group's clicks per open role a week divided by the same rate across every open role on the site. Above 1, its roles draw more applicants than the average role.
- Location rule
- Read from each posting's location text: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries, or no rule stated.
- Window
- Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC.
What this data cannot tell you
- Employers that recruit without a public job board are not counted, and some data-collection programs enrol people through an app rather than a job listing.
- A listing is not a hire. Some employers keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per city or country.
- A role whose title names no vehicle is not counted for one, so each vehicle's count is a floor.
- Apply clicks measure interest among the people who use RobotTraining.jobs, and what is shown first gets clicked more.
How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.
Editions
The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.
- Live dataLast 28 complete days, recomputed daily
Cite and reuse
Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. Live figures change daily: cite a monthly edition for numbers that will read the same later, or keep the access date.
Citation
RobotTraining.jobs (2026). Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work (live data, 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026). https://robottraining.jobs/research/vehicle-and-drone-operator-work (accessed 10 Oct 2026)
BibTeX
@misc{robottrainingjobs_vehicle_and_drone_operator_work_live,
author = {{RobotTraining.jobs}},
title = {Autonomous Vehicle and Drone Operator Work (live data, 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026)},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://robottraining.jobs/research/vehicle-and-drone-operator-work}},
note = {Accessed 10 Oct 2026},
}Data: all figures as CSV (one line per value) or JSON. Every figure also downloads on its own. More open data: datasets and API.
More research
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