Career Explorer Engineering and architecture
Grows with AI
Surveying and mapping technicians
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.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 53% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +5.8% by 2035, faster than average.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $54,240
- Job growth to 2035
- +5.8%
- Openings a year
- 6,900
- People doing it (2025)
- 58,800
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Gather data about operational or development activities
- Evaluate designs, specifications, or other technical data
- Create visual designs or displays
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Assess characteristics of land or property
- Monitor operations to ensure compliance with regulations or standards
What the work looks like
- Set out and recover stakes, marks, or other monumentation.
- Search for section corners, property irons, or survey points.
- Calculate latitudes, longitudes, angles, areas, or other information for mapmaking, using survey field notes or reference tables.
- Enter Global Positioning System (GPS) data, legal deeds, field notes, or land survey reports into geographic information system (GIS) workstations so that information can be transformed into graphic land descriptions, such as maps and drawings.
- Adjust and operate surveying instruments such as prisms, theodolites, electronic distance measuring equipment, or electronic data collectors.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Agricultural workers, all otherHuman edge, growing, Index 83, +3.8%
- Forest and conservation workersHuman edge, steady, Index 67, -1.5%
- Floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tilesHuman edge, growing, Index 92, +9.0%
- Log graders and scalersHuman edge, steady, Index 58, -2.2%
Also known as: Land Surveyor, Mapping Technician (Mapping Tech), Stereoplotter Operator, Survey Technician (Survey Tech), Field Surveyor, Land Survey Technician (Land Survey Tech), Mapping Editor, Photogrammetric Technician (Photogrammetric Tech).
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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.