---
title: "Agricultural Drone Pilot"
description: "Flies drones that spray crops, spread seed and map fields, combining FAA drone certification with pesticide applicator licensing."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-drone-pilot"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Agricultural Drone Pilot

**Category:** Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance · **SOC code:** 37-3012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 37-3012.00

Flies drones that spray crops, spread seed and map fields, combining FAA drone certification with pesticide applicator licensing.

Also advertised as: Spray Drone Operator; Ag Drone Operator; Drone Applicator; UAS Agricultural Applicator; Crop Spraying Drone Pilot.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $46,340 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.28/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,570 to $61,420, with the middle half between $39,160 and $51,240
- **Total US employment:** 27,050
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 27,050 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,570 |
| 25th | $39,160 |
| 50th (median) | $46,340 |
| 75th | $51,240 |
| 90th | $61,420 |
| Mean (average) | $47,070 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $62,980 | $59,552 | Not published by BLS |
| DE | $54,190 | $54,294 | 40 |
| OR | $51,590 | $49,912 | 290 |
| HI | $51,240 | $46,603 | 60 |
| ND | $50,490 | $56,756 | 280 |
| OH | $50,060 | $53,959 | 490 |
| WY | $49,190 | $53,069 | 120 |
| KS | $49,090 | $54,503 | 520 |
| MN | $49,030 | $49,716 | 950 |
| PA | $48,870 | $50,086 | 360 |
| AZ | $48,630 | $48,303 | 210 |
| VA | $48,610 | $48,079 | 240 |
| IN | $48,500 | $51,967 | 950 |
| NY | $48,380 | $44,829 | 220 |
| RI | $48,360 | $47,282 | 100 |

29 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 44 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-drone-pilot/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/agricultural-drone-pilot.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 25,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 26,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,000 jobs, or +3.9%. About as fast as average: 3.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Plan flight paths and application maps for fields
- Calibrate spray rates and nozzle settings
- Mix and load pesticides and fertilizers safely
- Fly and monitor drones during automated applications
- Check weather and drift conditions before each flight
- Capture aerial imagery to map crop health
- Maintain drones, batteries and application records

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.51 |
| C — Conventional | 4.34 |
| I — Investigative | 3.50 |
| S — Social | 1.95 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.42 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 91.3 |
| ISTP | 78.7 |
| ISFJ | 75.3 |
| ESTJ | 72.7 |
| INTJ | 68.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Pesticide Handler, Sprayer, and Applicator, Vegetation](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pesticide-handler-sprayer-and-applicator-vegetation) — median $46,340
- [Landscaping and Groundskeeping Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/landscaping-and-groundskeeping-worker) — median $39,150
- [Agricultural Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-equipment-operator) — median $41,730
- [Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator) — median $60,020
- [Pest Control Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pest-control-worker) — median $45,250
- [Cleaner of Vehicles and Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaner-of-vehicles-and-equipment) — median $35,830
- [Farmworker and Laborer, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/farmworker-and-laborer-crop-nursery-and-greenhouse) — median $35,660
- [Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/coating-painting-and-spraying-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $48,250
- [Septic Tank Servicer and Sewer Pipe Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/septic-tank-servicer-and-sewer-pipe-cleaner) — median $49,880
- [Chemical Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-plant-and-system-operator) — median $78,120

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/agricultural-drone-pilot