Career Explorer Engineering and architecture
Grows with AI
Cartographers and photogrammetrists
Research, study, and prepare maps and other spatial data in digital or graphic form for one or more purposes, such as legal, social, political, educational, and design purposes. May work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). May design and evaluate algorithms, data structures, and user interfaces for GIS and mapping systems. May collect, analyze, and interpret geographic information provided by geodetic surveys, aerial photographs, and satellite data.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 32% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +7.4% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on creative vision.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $81,390
- Job growth to 2035
- +7.4%
- Openings a year
- 900
- People doing it (2025)
- 14,700
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Gather data about operational or development activities
- Create visual designs or displays
- Develop technical specifications for products or operations
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Assess characteristics of land or property
- Inspect completed work or finished products
- Analyze environmental or geospatial data
What the work looks like
- Compile data required for map preparation, including aerial photographs, survey notes, records, reports, and original maps.
- Delineate aerial photographic detail, such as control points, hydrography, topography, and cultural features, using precision stereoplotting apparatus or drafting instruments.
- Prepare and alter trace maps, charts, tables, detailed drawings, and three-dimensional optical models of terrain using stereoscopic plotting and computer graphics equipment.
- Study legal records to establish boundaries of local, national, and international properties.
- Inspect final compositions to ensure completeness and accuracy.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as local governments expand digital map availability and related location information.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Architectural and civil draftersGrows with AI, Index 46, +5.2%
- Industrial engineering technologists and techniciansChanging shape, Index 47, +3.1%
- Agricultural techniciansGrows with AI, Index 66, +5.4%
- SurveyorsGrows with AI, Index 38, +5.8%
Also known as: Cartographer, Photogrammetric Technician, Photogrammetrist, Stereo Compiler, Aerial Photogrammetrist, Cartographic Designer, Digital Cartographer, Mapper.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.