Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians
In short: today's best AI models could do about 10% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 21% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 79% of the time, stays with people.
Operate, install, adjust, and maintain integrated computer/communications systems, consoles, simulators, and other data acquisition, test, and measurement instruments and equipment, which are used to launch, track, position, and evaluate air and space vehicles. May record and interpret test data.
11,280 people do this job in the US. $82,890 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on4 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet5 h
- Stays with people31 h
Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 4 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 5 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 31 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Record and interpret test data on parts, assemblies, and mechanisms (about 4 h); Design electrical and mechanical systems for avionic instrumentation applications (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 21%
- 3%
- 76%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 3%. Today's estimate: 10%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 11 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.002% to none (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.002% | 694 of 708 | 1 of 11 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 11 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 77% of this job's working time as physical work. For 36% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 36% in a purpose-built cell. 0.36 of 3, the 365th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 23%
- No robot shown 41%
- In a purpose-built cell 36%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 11 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabricate and install parts and systems to be tested in test equipment, using hand tools, power tools, and test instruments.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZwickRoell roboTest R robotic testing system (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 20% | 5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Test aircraft systems under simulated operational conditions, performing systems readiness tests and pre- and post-operational checkouts, to establish design or fabrication parameters.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, RoCCET (Robot Controlled Cockpit Electronics Testing) (Lufthansa Technik) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 14% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Construct and maintain test facilities for aircraft parts and systems, according to specifications.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 13% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1 work week | Stays with people | |
| Design electrical and mechanical systems for avionic instrumentation applications.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 12% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 7%Half by Nov 2027 | |
| Identify required data, data acquisition plans, and test parameters, setting up equipment to conform to these specifications.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Record and interpret test data on parts, assemblies, and mechanisms.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 9% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 96%Half by now | |
| Inspect, diagnose, maintain, and operate test setups and equipment to detect malfunctions.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate and calibrate computer systems and devices to comply with test requirements and to perform data acquisition and analysis.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Scanivalve DSA3217/DSA3218 Digital Sensor Array pressure scanners (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 2.1 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Finish vehicle instrumentation and deinstrumentation.Done more than monthly by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Adjust, repair, or replace faulty components of test setups and equipment.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 2.5 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Confer with engineering personnel regarding details and implications of test procedures and results.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians37% now, 55% by 2028
- Avionics Technicians13% now, 15% by 2028
- Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians20% now, 26% by 2028
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians35% now, 53% by 2028
- Automotive Engineering Technicians19% now, 19% by 2028
- Robotics Technicians22% now, 26% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
- Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing5,090 people
- Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services1,900 people
- Scientific Research and Development Services1,350 people
- Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, and Control Instruments Manufacturing810 people
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services670 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 10% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 21% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (16% to 21% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Record and interpret test data on parts, assemblies, and mechanisms (96% of the task's time now); and Design electrical and mechanical systems for avionic instrumentation applications (7% of the task's time now, 96% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Fabricate and install parts and systems to be tested in test equipment, using hand tools, power tools, and test instruments; Test aircraft systems under simulated operational conditions, performing systems readiness tests and pre- and post-operational checkouts, to establish design or fabrication parameters; and Construct and maintain test facilities for aircraft parts and systems, according to specifications. Together such tasks are about 79% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 77% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 36% of the working time. Its index is 0.36 of 3. One example: ZwickRoell roboTest R robotic testing system for "fabricate and install parts and systems to be tested in test equipment, using hand tools, power tools, and test instruments". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 11 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
This job in your state or metro area
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
This occupation has not been reviewed task by task yet, so the full personal report is not offered for it; 402 of 923 occupations are reviewed so far, largest first.