explosives engineer
Explosives engineers design drilling patterns and determine the amount of explosives required. They organise and supervise controlled blasts and report and investigate misfires. They manage explosives magazines.
explosives engineer explosives engineers design drilling patterns and determine the amount of explosives required. They organise and supervise controlled blasts and report and investigate misfires. They manage explosives magazines. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include explosives, impact of geological factors on mining operations, safety engineering, geology, electricity.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £51,366 a year for Civil engineers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £39,802 to £65,000 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2121). ONS rates this estimate reasonably precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only explosives engineer, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Frequently asked questions
What does explosives engineer do?
Explosives engineers design drilling patterns and determine the amount of explosives required. They organise and supervise controlled blasts and report and investigate misfires. They manage explosives magazines.
What skills does explosives engineer need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include explosives, impact of geological factors on mining operations, safety engineering, geology, electricity, chemistry. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace explosives engineer?
Our AI-durability model gives explosives engineer a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.