The 100 Highest Paying Jobs In Kentucky For 2026

Have you ever wondered which professions yield the highest salaries? Curious about how much your dentist earns for those dental visits?

We share that curiosity and sought to uncover the highest-paying professions in Kentucky. If you couldn’t tell, we consider ourselves data enthusiasts.

Following an extensive analysis by our data science team, we found that Consultant and Sales Representatives hold the title for the highest earners in Kentucky.

Here’s a snapshot of the top ten highest-paying jobs in Kentucky:

How We Determined the Highest Paid Jobs in Kentucky for 2026

To estimate salaries, Zippia utilizes data from publicly accessible sources, including the most recently released data from March 2026 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (FLC), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Our data science team enhances this data by analyzing millions of job postings daily to identify and match published salaries to job titles, companies, and locations. Ultimately, we calculate a weighted average to determine estimated salaries for various job titles in Kentucky.

In total, our team analyzed salary data for 45 job categories in Kentucky to identify those that command the highest pay.

Detailed List of Highest Paying Jobs In Kentucky

Rank	Job Title	Average Salary	Entry Level Salary	# Of People
1	Consultant And Sales Representative	$212,971	$164,000	1,043
2	Operator And Truck Driver	$187,540	$128,000	6,776
3	Owner/operator	$157,618	$106,000	5,665
4	Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist	$154,777	$101,000	2,628
5	Emergency Medicine Specialist	$152,571	$93,000	2,124
6	Family Practitioner	$146,711	$87,000	2,094
7	Public Health Dentist	$142,605	$87,000	2,464
8	Clinical Physician Assistant	$141,724	$89,000	2,465
9	Director Of Engineering, Quality & Program Management	$133,569	$95,000	1,044
10	General Sales Manager	$133,556	$83,000	1,130
11	Driver/owner Operator	$131,972	$73,000	6,310
12	Nurse Anesthetist	$128,820	$78,000	1,246
13	Senior Program Management Consultant	$120,254	$91,000	1,008
14	Vice President, Business Operations	$117,775	$76,000	1,105
15	Retail Pharmacist	$117,633	$91,000	1,158
16	Software Engineer/Technical Lead	$115,384	$87,000	1,222
17	Customer Service Director	$114,397	$80,000	1,157
18	President And General Manager	$113,832	$69,000	1,325
19	Executive Director Business Development	$111,765	$72,000	1,147
20	Project Engineer/Software Engineer	$111,163	$86,000	1,057
21	Vice President & General Manager	$110,951	$69,000	1,084
22	Business Developer	$110,912	$71,000	1,124
23	Contractor-Registered Nurse	$110,549	$68,000	2,234
24	Engineering Production Operations Director	$110,183	$70,000	1,132
25	Senior Software Quality Analyst	$102,716	$82,000	1,044
26	Director of User Experience	$100,344	$65,000	2,646
27	Senior Process Manager	$100,288	$73,000	1,089
28	Manager of Business Consulting	$100,238	$73,000	1,207
29	Project Manager/Consultant Management	$100,126	$71,000	1,106
30	Software Development Project Manager	$99,091	$69,000	1,171
31	Senior Business Development Representative	$96,771	$64,000	1,212
32	Director of Call Center Operations	$96,731	$63,000	1,121
33	Senior Manager of Business Operations	$96,309	$73,000	1,069
34	Registered Nurse in the ICU	$96,153	$54,000	2,456
35	Data Center Operations Manager	$94,639	$70,000	1,015
36	Senior Software Support Engineer	$94,409	$73,000	1,107
37	Associate Specialist	$93,930	$65,000	1,317
38	Advanced Practice Registered Nurse	$93,565	$61,000	2,815
39	Process Control Manager	$91,241	$69,000	1,113
40	Data Center Engineer	$91,167	$64,000	1,136
41	Business Operations Consultant	$91,166	$64,000	1,082
42	Lead Business Systems Analyst	$91,028	$71,000	1,070
43	Plant Manager	$90,981	$65,000	1,116
44	Senior Data Center Engineer	$90,615	$65,000	1,007
45	Technical Support Analyst Lead	$90,386	$68,000	1,094

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated for 2026. This marks our sixth ranking of the highest-paying jobs in Kentucky.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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