Commercial drone pilots typically run a side gig or a full-blown business offering drone-based services. However, more and more organizations and corporations are starting to realize that having a drone pilot permanently in their payroll can help enhance their day-to-day activities. This relatively recent development has opened permanent employment opportunities for drone pilots.
This type of opportunity provides earning potential that is different from the usual gig-based jobs. As with any regular job, drone pilots in the employ of a company will receive a regular salary. Just how much can a fully employed drone pilot expect to earn?
To provide snapshots of what drone pilots usually make nowadays, we consulted several job salary sites and looked for data on the relevant job titles. The data from each job site is summarized per section.
Payscale.com
| Title | Average Annual Salary | No. of respondents |
| UAV Pilot | $75,000 | 40 |
| Drone Pilot | $51,725 | 120 |
| Drone Operator | $49,061 | 31 |
Payscale is a site that collects user-provided salary data for specific job titles, aggregating them, and coming up with average salary figures for different levels of experience and even quantifies a gender pay gap, should there be one.
There are three job titles in the site that are relevant to drone pilots – UAV Pilot, Drone Operator, and Drone Pilot. The ‘Drone Pilot’ title is the one that has the most well-represented data, with 120 respondents. According to the entry for Drone Pilots, the average annual salary is around $51,000.
Diving into more detail for Drone Pilots according to Payscale, those who are at entry-level generally earn about 10% less than the average while the more experienced employees earn up to 55% higher than average.
71% of the survey respondents were those who were still in their early careers. Only 5% of the respondents considered themselves experienced. The gender disparity of Drone Pilots is quite large – only 7% of the respondents for Drone Pilots were female.
Again going back to our larger data group from Payscale, the UAV Pilot job title seems to be the most profitable. The average annual salary for UAV Pilots is $75,000, widely distributed across a range going from $43,000 to $173,000.
Interestingly, UAV Pilots in Las Vegas earn up to 33% more than the average. Experienced UAV Pilots also earn similarly larger salaries. As with Drone Pilots, most of the respondents that provided salary data for UAV Pilots (62.5%) considered themselves to be in the early stages of their careers.
Salary.com
Salary.com is another site that provides detailed salary research data for a variety of job titles. For our purpose, there are only two job titles on the site we’re interested in as summarized below:
| Title | Average Annual Salary |
| UAV Pilot | $78,513 |
| Drone Operator | $54,131 |
The comparison between the annual average salaries for UAV Pilots and Drone Operators is quite similar to what we observed from Payscale. Salary.com does not provide details on how much data they have collected for each job title to come up with their salary research, so we’ll just assume that both datasets are equally valid.
For UAV Pilots, those in the lower 10% percentile earn around $39,000. Meanwhile, those in the 90% percentile earn up to $109,000.
The dataset for Drone Operators shows significantly lower earnings. Inexperienced Drone Operators earn about $36,600 annually. Curiously, more experienced Drone Operators earn about $79,900 – just a little higher than the median salary figure for UAV Operators.
Glassdoor.com
Glassdoor collects salary data from submissions on the site. In addition to summarizing salary data for specific job titles, the site also cites specific companies that offer jobs with these titles and shows the salary that they offer.
There are three job titles in Glassdoor relevant to our discussion, the salary figures of which are summarized below.
| Title | Average Annual Salary | Low | High |
| UAV Operator | $35,569 | $23,000 | $57,000 |
| UAV Pilot | $82,755 | $73,000 | $116,000 |
| Drone Pilot | $70,593 | $48,000 | $74,000 |
The average annual salaries for UAV Pilots and Drone Pilots seem to be in line with the rest of the data gathered from Payscale and Salary.com. UAV Pilots hold a slight advantage with annual earnings of $82, 755. With minimum pay of $73,000 per year and the potential to earn up to $116,000, getting a job as a UAV Pilot seems to be a sweet gig. The US Air Force seems to be one of the best places to get a job as a UAV Pilot as they offer salaries in the range of $112,000 to $121,000 annually.
The Drone Pilot job title also earns well but seems to have very little upside. From an annual salary of $70, 593, the maximum amount offered for this job title is only $74,000. Again, the US Air Force offers a premium salary to Drone Pilots at a range of $96,000 to $104,000.
It’s quite interesting to discover that those with the job title of UAV Operator earn at a much smaller rate. With an annual average salary of $35,569, this is probably the least job title available to drone operators.
However, taking a look at the actual jobs offered to UAV Operators that there are a handful of jobs that offer salaries of more than $70,000. For instance, Boeing pays a salary of $129,000 to $139,000 for UAV Operators, while Textron Systems pays anywhere from $71,000 to $127,000. The generally lower average annual salary figure stems from the fact that there are a lot of companies that pay only $30,000 to $50,000 to UAV Operators.
How profitable is a job as a drone pilot?
While there are anomalous figures here and there, the data from the three salary research sites indicate that the jobs available to drone pilots generally offer average annual salaries within the range of $70,000 to $85,000. This is significantly higher than the latest figure for the annual average salary in the US, which is about $48,672.
What is even more encouraging for drone pilots is that some of these job titles can earn up to $120,000 per year or more depending on the pilot’s level of experience. If you’ve been flying drones for ten years, then you have a very good chance of earning in the $100,000 tier if you can get a job as a drone pilot in a high-profile company.
One more interesting trend we’ve observed from the data on all three sites is that the job titles described as ‘pilots’ (such as Drone Pilot or UAV Pilot) earn more than those described as ‘operators’ (Drone Operator or UAV Operator). In the lexicon of drone pilots, there’s really no difference between the two, but professional companies and organizations seem to have a different stance on the matter.
Final thoughts
For those who are thinking of building a professional career as a drone pilot, the figures we have uncovered here seem very encouraging. The majority of the salary data for job titles that pertain to drone pilots indicate earning potential that is much higher than what the average American earns annually. Moreover, the upside to the salaries of drone pilots is huge – from average annual salaries in the $70,000 to $80,000 range, more experienced drone pilots can earn up to $120,000 per year.
Moreover, the large amount of data on salaries is proof that there is a thriving job market out there for drone pilots. As drones become more common and more organizations start to recognize the value that they offer, we expect more and more job openings that require the unique set of skills of a drone pilot.
