---
title: "Scientific Diver"
description: "Dives to collect data and samples underwater for research on coral reefs, kelp forests, fisheries and underwater archaeology."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/scientific-diver"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Scientific Diver

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-4021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-4021.00

Dives to collect data and samples underwater for research on coral reefs, kelp forests, fisheries and underwater archaeology.

Also advertised as: Research Diver; Scientific Diving Technician; Marine Research Technician; Diving Safety Officer; Underwater Research Technician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $57,510 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $27.65/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $40,330 to $84,940, with the middle half between $48,130 and $71,520
- **Total US employment:** 69,620
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 9,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — 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 69,620 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $40,330 |
| 25th | $48,130 |
| 50th (median) | $57,510 |
| 75th | $71,520 |
| 90th | $84,940 |
| Mean (average) | $61,380 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $71,440 | $64,523 | 9,210 |
| NJ | $66,040 | $60,696 | 1,290 |
| DC | $64,770 | $58,935 | 210 |
| CT | $62,360 | $60,187 | 650 |
| MA | $62,070 | $58,691 | 8,430 |
| NC | $61,720 | $65,433 | 2,460 |
| NY | $61,210 | $56,717 | 5,050 |
| WA | $60,800 | $56,816 | 3,210 |
| ME | $60,160 | $61,989 | 510 |
| CO | $59,400 | $57,641 | 1,990 |
| IN | $58,790 | $62,992 | 1,020 |
| DE | $58,550 | $58,663 | 180 |
| MS | $56,930 | $65,472 | 330 |
| AK | $56,470 | $55,169 | 410 |
| IL | $55,790 | $55,813 | 790 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/scientific-diver/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/scientific-diver.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 74,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 79,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,500 jobs, or +7.4%. Much faster than average: 7.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,400 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 | 62.8% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 14.5% |
| Some College Courses | 14.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 5.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 2.5% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0.2% |

## What the work involves

- Survey fish, coral and invertebrate populations underwater
- Collect water, sediment and biological samples
- Install and service underwater instruments
- Photograph and map underwater habitats
- Maintain diving and research equipment
- Enter and analyze field data
- Follow and help enforce dive safety procedures

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 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 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — 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
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Biology — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 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 | 5.72 |
| C — Conventional | 5.62 |
| I — Investigative | 5.37 |
| S — Social | 1.97 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.31 |
| A — Artistic | 1.20 |

### 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 | 93.4 |
| ISTP | 79.5 |
| INTJ | 77.3 |
| ISFJ | 74.4 |
| ESTJ | 70.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Biological Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biological-technician) — median $57,510
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technician) — median $62,930
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Chemical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-technician) — median $60,390
- [Cytogenetic Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cytogenetic-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Histotechnologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/histotechnologist) — median $62,930
- [Agricultural Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-technician) — median $49,630
- [Histology Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/histology-technician) — median $62,930
- [Bioinformatics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bioinformatics-technician) — median $81,490
- [Nanotechnology Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nanotechnology-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $66,120

## 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/scientific-diver