Salary data · October 14, 2026
Robotics salaries, by job title
What robot operators, drone pilots, data collection operators and self-driving vehicle crews are offered, measured from the hourly pay stated in 49 open US postings by 17 employers. Each title opens its own page with the pay at every employer and in every state.
- Job titles measured
- 5
- PostingsUS, with an hourly rate
- 49
- Employers
- 17
- Highest medianDrone Pilot
- $37.75/hr
By job title
Median hourly pay, ranked
Each bar is a title's middle half of stated rates (25th to 75th percentile) and the tick its median. Open a title for its pay at each employer and in each state, its shifts, and its open jobs.
- $37.75/hrMiddle half $33.75–$43.50/hr · about $78,500 a year · 6 postings from 4 employers
- $34/hrMiddle half $26–$34.50/hr · about $70,700 a year · 8 postings from 3 employers
- $27.25/hrMiddle half $27–$34.75/hr · about $56,700 a year · 14 postings from 3 employers
- $27/hrMiddle half $25–$30/hr · about $56,200 a year · 16 postings from 4 employers
- $25/hrMiddle half $22–$31/hr · about $52,000 a year · 5 postings from 4 employers
Not measured yet
Titles with too little stated pay
These job titles are open on the board, but too few of their US postings state an hourly rate, or the ones that do come from too few employers, for a median to say more than one or two employers' own numbers. A title gets its page once 5 such postings from 2 or more employers give 4 different rates.
- Safety Driver146 open postings, 5 in the US with an hourly rate, from 2 employers · Autonomous vehicle operator jobs
- Test Driver80 open postings, 4 in the US with an hourly rate, from 2 employers · Autonomous vehicle operator jobs
- Robotics Technician65 open postings, 2 in the US with an hourly rate, from 2 employers · Humanoid robot jobs
- Teleoperator44 open postings, 1 in the US with an hourly rate, from 1 employer · Robot operator and teleoperator jobs
- Fleet Operations Specialist27 open postings, 12 in the US with an hourly rate, from 1 employer · Robot operator jobs
Method
Where these numbers come from
Every open posting on the board is sorted into a job title by the words in its title, so “Humanoid Robot Operator” and “Robot Pilot” count as robot operators and “Flight Test Operator” as a drone pilot. Only the hourly pay a posting states is used, from postings in the United States, each at the midpoint of its range. An employer that posts one range in many cities counts once, so its posting volume cannot set the median.
The yearly figures multiply an hourly rate by 2,080 hours (40 a week, 52 weeks): an estimate, not a salary any posting states. For pay by kind of work and by employer across every posting, see the pay explorer and the pay report; to turn a rate into your own weekly or monthly earnings, use the earnings calculator.
Questions about robotics salaries
Which robotics job title pays the most?
Of the job titles with enough stated pay to measure, drone pilots have the highest median, $37.75 an hour (about $78,500 a year at full time), and data collection operators the lowest, $25 an hour. Medians come from open US postings that state an hourly rate, read on October 14, 2026.
How are these salaries measured?
Each figure comes from the hourly pay open job postings state, never from surveys or estimates. Postings are grouped by job title with fixed word rules, only US postings are pooled, each employer's advertised range counts once, and the yearly figure is the hourly median times 2,080 hours.
Why is there no salary page for some job titles?
A title gets a page once at least 5 open US postings from 2 or more employers state an hourly rate, giving 4 or more distinct employer rates. safety drivers, test drivers, robotics technicians and teleoperators are listed on the board but do not meet that yet, so their pay is not published as a salary figure.