---
title: "NEPA Planner"
description: "Prepares environmental reviews for federal projects like highways, pipelines and power lines under the National Environmental Policy Act."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nepa-planner"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# NEPA Planner

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-2041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-2041.00

Prepares environmental reviews for federal projects like highways, pipelines and power lines under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Also advertised as: NEPA Specialist; Environmental Planner; Environmental Compliance Planner; NEPA Project Manager; Environmental Impact Analyst.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $82,220 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $39.53/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $52,520 to $140,010, with the middle half between $64,490 and $107,970
- **Total US employment:** 89,250
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 26/100 — 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 89,250 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $52,520 |
| 25th | $64,490 |
| 50th (median) | $82,220 |
| 75th | $107,970 |
| 90th | $140,010 |
| Mean (average) | $91,680 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $132,620 | $120,672 | 1,270 |
| CA | $106,510 | $96,198 | 12,490 |
| RI | $100,730 | $98,485 | 330 |
| MA | $100,640 | $95,162 | 2,930 |
| WA | $98,300 | $91,858 | 4,470 |
| OR | $97,440 | $94,272 | 1,370 |
| TX | $92,000 | $94,790 | 5,630 |
| AK | $91,960 | $89,841 | 860 |
| UT | $90,710 | $91,752 | 1,020 |
| MN | $88,000 | $89,230 | 2,260 |
| NM | $86,630 | $93,947 | 940 |
| CO | $85,990 | $83,443 | 2,580 |
| GA | $85,710 | $89,010 | 1,750 |
| ND | $84,570 | $95,066 | 240 |
| MD | $84,190 | $80,212 | 1,760 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/nepa-planner/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nepa-planner.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 93,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 99,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,700 jobs, or +6.1%. Faster than average: 6.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,300 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:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 47.5% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 21.3% |
| Master's Degree | 13.8% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 12.7% |
| Doctoral Degree | 4.0% |
| Some College Courses | 0.8% |

## What the work involves

- Determine the level of NEPA review a project requires
- Coordinate technical studies by resource specialists
- Write and edit environmental assessments and impact statements
- Manage public scoping and comment periods
- Track endangered species and historic preservation consultations
- Respond to public and agency comments
- Maintain the administrative record for legal review

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 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 Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.94 |
| R — Realistic | 4.76 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.53 |
| S — Social | 2.75 |
| A — Artistic | 1.87 |

### 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 | 84.7 |
| INTJ | 81.8 |
| ISTP | 76.2 |
| ESTJ | 66.3 |
| INTP | 62.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Environmental Scientist and Specialist, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-scientist-and-specialist) — median $82,220
- [Environmental Compliance Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-compliance-inspector) — median $80,730
- [Environmental Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-engineer) — median $107,110
- [Industrial Ecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-ecologist) — median $82,220
- [Environmental Science and Protection Technician, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-science-and-protection-technician) — median $55,090
- [Conservation Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conservation-scientist) — median $73,010
- [Environmental Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $59,920
- [Brownfield Redevelopment Specialist and Site Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/brownfield-redevelopment-specialist-and-site-manager) — median $141,900
- [Climate Change Policy Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/climate-change-policy-analyst) — median $82,220
- [Environmental Restoration Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-restoration-planner) — median $82,220

## 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/nepa-planner