---
title: "Hydrogen Plant Operator"
description: "Runs the equipment that produces hydrogen gas, either from natural gas reformers or from water electrolyzers, for refineries, fuel and industry."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydrogen-plant-operator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Hydrogen Plant Operator

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-8091 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-8091.00

Runs the equipment that produces hydrogen gas, either from natural gas reformers or from water electrolyzers, for refineries, fuel and industry.

Also advertised as: Hydrogen Production Operator; Hydrogen Plant Technician; Electrolyzer Operator; Hydrogen Unit Operator; Steam Methane Reformer Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $78,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.56/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,400 to $111,930, with the middle half between $60,330 and $98,660
- **Total US employment:** 16,610
- **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:** -5.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 50/100 — 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 16,610 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $48,400 |
| 25th | $60,330 |
| 50th (median) | $78,120 |
| 75th | $98,660 |
| 90th | $111,930 |
| Mean (average) | $79,970 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FL | $128,830 | $124,577 | 60 |
| WY | $107,810 | $116,311 | 300 |
| TX | $102,750 | $105,866 | 2,360 |
| LA | $100,060 | $113,438 | 3,400 |
| KY | $97,550 | $108,198 | 40 |
| MD | $95,150 | $90,654 | 290 |
| AL | $91,610 | $103,138 | 230 |
| AR | $91,610 | $105,375 | 240 |
| CA | $87,550 | $79,073 | 780 |
| OR | $87,110 | $84,277 | 120 |
| NJ | $86,820 | $79,794 | 330 |
| MA | $83,710 | $79,153 | 570 |
| ID | $82,980 | $86,896 | 60 |
| WV | $81,710 | $91,299 | 380 |
| NM | $72,610 | $78,742 | Not published by BLS |

20 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 35 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydrogen-plant-operator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/hydrogen-plant-operator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 16,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 15,900 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 900 jobs, or -5.2%. Declining: -5.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,300 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

- Monitor hydrogen production units from the control room
- Adjust reformer or electrolyzer operating conditions
- Make rounds to check compressors, valves and safety systems
- Collect samples for purity testing
- Start up and shut down units following procedures
- Respond to alarms, leaks and emergencies
- Record readings and shift logs

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 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 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.8 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 | 6.22 |
| C — Conventional | 5.30 |
| I — Investigative | 3.73 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.60 |
| S — Social | 1.22 |
| 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 | 95.0 |
| ISTP | 81.1 |
| ISFJ | 75.2 |
| ESTJ | 74.5 |
| INTJ | 72.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Chemical Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-plant-and-system-operator) — median $78,120
- [Chemical Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $58,040
- [Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/separating-filtering-clarifying-precipitating-and-still-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $51,610
- [Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator) — median $60,020
- [Petroleum Pump System Operator, Refinery Operator, and Gauger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/petroleum-pump-system-operator-refinery-operator-and-gauger) — median $96,710
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaning-washing-and-metal-pickling-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $43,530
- [Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-compressor-and-gas-pumping-station-operator) — median $77,320
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820

## 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/hydrogen-plant-operator