Photonics Engineers

Design technologies specializing in light information or light energy, such as laser or fiber optics technology.

The median annual salary for Photonics Engineers in the US is $117,750.

The role is showing modest growth of 2% over the next decade. Current US employment is approximately 158,800 workers.

The typical entry education is a Bachelor's degree. Building a foundation in the top skills below will strengthen your application.

The most in-demand skills for this role include optical equipment standards, optical glass characteristics, photonics, engineering principles, optics, types of optical instruments. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Our AI-durability model gives Photonics Engineers a score of 0.52 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.

Photonics Engineers has moderate barrier to entry — moderately gated — a bachelor's degree or equivalent training is typically required.