Robotics Engineers

High pay & lowrisk Trending
Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

13% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 5 more strengths

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Operations analysis

Quite important
Why this matters
Figure out what people need and what a product must do, then translate those requirements into a workable design.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 391 votes

27% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 13% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Robotics Engineers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Engineers, All Other was $117,750 ($57 per hour).

The median annual wage for Engineers, All Other was 137.9% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Engineers, All Other' job openings is expected to rise 2.1% by 2034

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 150,750 people employed as 'Engineers, All Other' within the United States.

This represents around 0.10% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Engineers, All Other'.

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What people are saying (8)

Leave a comment
Andy (Low)
24 Oct 2025 14:48
There will always be a need for a robot programmer. AI can assist, but it will be a very long time before a robot can program and install other robots... I hope
Radek (Low)
03 Jul 2024 20:00
machines ain't making machines for a long time , they gonna make them but not design
Engineer (No chance)
03 Jul 2024 17:43
Every robot needs creator who will makes them and repair...
ipadman (Low)
13 Nov 2023 22:53
Because we need humans to make the robots
Jesse Tong (No chance)
19 Sep 2023 10:25
Robotics engineers and computers scientists are literally designing and improving robots and AIs, until robots and AIs can perfect themselves without human intervention completely, the best robotics engineers and computer scientists will be replaced. But then, every other jobs has been replaced so...
Philma Hooters
09 Dec 2022 03:19
why? i used to design robots and now, I lost my job. it wasnt to robots but still
awdadwgfbfbsdfg (No chance)
06 Aug 2022 14:36
As robots advance, the need for humans in this field will only increase.
Berg (No chance)
16 Nov 2021 12:07
Will a robotics engineer be replaced by the own robots whom he himself makes?
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Research, design, develop, or test robotic applications.

O*NET-SOC code: 17-2199.08