Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between launch operators and operations engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a launch operator, becoming an operations engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, an operations engineer has an average salary of $91,522, which is higher than the $72,155 average annual salary of a launch operator.
The top three skills for a launch operator include boats, coast guard and GPS. The most important skills for an operations engineer are python, cloud, and AWS.
| Launch Operator | Operations Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $72,155 | $91,522 |
| Hourly rate | $34.69 | $44.00 |
| Growth rate | 1% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 30,437 | 155,188 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 6 |
Launch operators and operations engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Launch Operator | Operations Engineer | |
| Average salary | $72,155 | $91,522 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $166,000 | Between $63,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Apple |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a launch operator and an operations engineer in terms of educational background:
| Launch Operator | Operations Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 53% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Business | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | - | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between launch operators' and operations engineers' demographics:
| Launch Operator | Operations Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.3% Female, 25.7% | Male, 89.9% Female, 10.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 3.1% White, 75.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 72.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 5% |