Surveying and Mapping Technicians

Moderate Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

Geographic Information Systems Technologists and Technicians
28% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
20.6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

GIS layers, spatial databases, map production, coordinate data, and quality checks transfer strongly.

Surveyors
28% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better
20.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Field measurements, boundary data, construction layout, survey notes, and map accuracy transfer directly.

Geodetic Surveyors
25% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better
23.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

GNSS, large-area measurement, coordinate systems, LIDAR, and geospatial accuracy transfer well.

Architectural and Civil Drafters
36% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better More jobs
12.1 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Topographic maps, plan sets, CAD, survey notes, construction features, and drawing standards overlap.

Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists
20% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better
28.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Spatial data, imagery, terrain analysis, sensors, and geospatial problem solving provide a bridge.

Compare this job with others
or search for another job
Share your results with friends and family.

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
4.0/10
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

48% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

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.

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite 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.
Jobs that also use this strength

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 61 votes

61% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 48% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Surveying and Mapping Technicians will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Surveying and Mapping Technicians was $51,940 ($25 per hour).

The median annual wage for Surveying and Mapping Technicians was 4.9% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Surveying and Mapping Technicians' job openings is expected to rise 4.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

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

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 56,720 people employed as 'Surveying and Mapping Technicians' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 2 thousand people are employed as 'Surveying and Mapping Technicians'.

People also viewed

Lawyers Surveyors Civil Engineers Computer Programmers Graphic Designers

What people are saying (1)

SurveyDaddy69 (No chance)
12 Sep 2022 17:40
Good luck with having robots cut a line through the woods to get to property corners.

Sure, it is already automated. Robots do calculations for most surveyors already. However, there's a lot of work involved that robots simply can't do.
Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000

Job description

Perform surveying and mapping duties, usually under the direction of an engineer, surveyor, cartographer, or photogrammetrist, to obtain data used for construction, mapmaking, boundary location, mining, or other purposes. May calculate mapmaking information and create maps from source data, such as surveying notes, aerial photography, satellite data, or other maps to show topographical features, political boundaries, and other features. May verify accuracy and completeness of maps.

O*NET-SOC code: 17-3031.00