---
title: "Pipeline Controller"
description: "Monitors and operates oil, gas or product pipelines remotely from a control room using SCADA systems, adjusting pumps, valves and flows."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/pipeline-controller"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Pipeline Controller

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-7071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-7071.00

Monitors and operates oil, gas or product pipelines remotely from a control room using SCADA systems, adjusting pumps, valves and flows.

Also advertised as: Pipeline Control Room Operator; Gas Control Operator; Oil Movements Controller; Liquids Pipeline Controller; Natural Gas Pipeline Controller.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $77,320 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.17/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $46,180 to $99,510, with the middle half between $58,580 and $91,020
- **Total US employment:** 3,510
- **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:** +2.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — 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 3,510 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $46,180 |
| 25th | $58,580 |
| 50th (median) | $77,320 |
| 75th | $91,020 |
| 90th | $99,510 |
| Mean (average) | $74,610 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| KS | $107,730 | $119,610 | 50 |
| AK | $106,440 | $103,987 | 60 |
| IN | $100,280 | $107,448 | 40 |
| OH | $85,930 | $92,623 | 120 |
| MT | $83,750 | $88,489 | 100 |
| OK | $82,150 | $93,519 | 140 |
| TX | $82,120 | $84,610 | 1,350 |
| LA | $79,970 | $90,662 | 60 |
| MI | $78,240 | $81,316 | 40 |
| CO | $76,200 | $73,943 | Not published by BLS |
| WV | $65,050 | $72,684 | 200 |
| VA | $64,990 | $64,280 | 40 |
| NE | $64,620 | $71,718 | 40 |
| PA | $60,170 | $61,667 | 300 |
| NY | $59,040 | $54,707 | 60 |

6 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 21 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/pipeline-controller/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pipeline-controller.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 3,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 3,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +2.1%. Slower than average: 2.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 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.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 64.6% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 13.9% |
| Some College Courses | 11.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 10.5% |

## What the work involves

- Operate valves, pumps and compressors remotely through SCADA
- Monitor pressures, flows and alarms across the pipeline system
- Respond to abnormal conditions and possible leaks
- Coordinate product batches and deliveries with schedulers
- Communicate with field technicians about maintenance
- Keep detailed shift logs and hand over at shift change
- Complete simulator drills and requalification training

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- 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
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 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 | 6.27 |
| C — Conventional | 5.26 |
| I — Investigative | 3.13 |
| S — Social | 1.51 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.49 |
| 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 | 93.8 |
| ISFJ | 78.0 |
| ISTP | 76.9 |
| ESTJ | 76.3 |
| INTJ | 68.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [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
- [Petroleum Pump System Operator, Refinery Operator, and Gauger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/petroleum-pump-system-operator-refinery-operator-and-gauger) — median $96,710
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Pump Operator, Except Wellhead Pumpers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pump-operator) — median $61,770
- [Chemical Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-plant-and-system-operator) — median $78,120
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Control and Valve Installer and Repairer, Except Mechanical Door](https://nuecareer.com/careers/control-and-valve-installer-and-repairer) — median $74,340
- [Wellhead Pumper](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wellhead-pumper) — median $69,960

## 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/pipeline-controller