Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Gas plant operators
Distribute or process gas for utility companies and others by controlling compressors to maintain specified pressures on main pipelines.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 31% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by -6.0% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on ethical judgement.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $87,820
- Job growth to 2035
- -6.0%
- Openings a year
- 1,400
- People doing it (2025)
- 18,200
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then long on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on business or operational matters
- Diagnose system or equipment problems
- Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate energy production or distribution equipment
- Monitor equipment operation
- Inspect commercial, industrial, or production systems or equipment
What the work looks like
- Monitor equipment functioning, observe temperature, level, and flow gauges, and perform regular unit checks to ensure that all equipment is operating as it should.
- Distribute or process gas for utility companies or industrial plants, using panel boards, control boards, and semi-automatic equipment.
- Control operation of compressors, scrubbers, evaporators, and refrigeration equipment to liquefy, compress, or regasify natural gas.
- Control equipment to regulate flow and pressure of gas to feedlines of boilers, furnaces, and related steam-generating or heating equipment.
- Record, review, and compile operations records, test results, and gauge readings such as temperatures, pressures, concentrations, and flows.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as improved process controls require less direct management, monitoring, and approval from operators due to automation.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Nuclear power reactor operatorsHuman edge, steady, Index 35, -5.9%
- Power plant operatorsHuman edge, steady, Index 36, -5.1%
- Railroad conductors and yardmastersHuman edge, steady, Index 46, +0.9%
- Stationary engineers and boiler operatorsHuman edge, steady, Index 77, +3.1%
Also known as: Gas Controller, Gas Dispatcher, Gas Plant Operator, Plant Operator, Compressor Technician (Compressor Tech), Engine Room Operator, Gas Resource Control Operator, Gas System Operator.
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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.