Photonics Technicians

Build, install, test, or maintain optical or fiber optic equipment, such as lasers, lenses, or mirrors, using spectrometers, interferometers, or related equipment.

The median annual salary for Photonics Technicians in the US is $77,390.

The role is showing modest growth of 2% over the next decade. Current US employment is approximately 67,300 workers.

The typical entry education is a Associate'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, optics, types of optical instruments, design drawings. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Our AI-durability model gives Photonics Technicians a score of 0.49 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 Technicians has moderate barrier to entry — moderately gated — a bachelor's degree or equivalent training is typically required.