25 of the Highest Paying Environment Jobs in 2026

The best Environment jobs can pay up to $400,000 per year.

High Paying Environment Jobs

• Director of Sustainability

  Salary range: $281,000 - $400,000

  As a director of sustainability, your role is to create company policies that impact your organization's environmental sustainability standards. Your responsibilities in this role revolve around ecology and how your company can lower its pollution of the environment surrounding it. You may create a new policy that helps to monitor this impact, or you may change existing policies to do the same. Your duties involve increasing the sustainability of the organization as a whole, from manufacturing processes, to supply chain, and all the way through to customer service and technology. You are the expert in sustainability and the go-to for individuals inside and outside the company with questions on the subject.

• Director of Environmental Services

  Salary range: $64,000 - $159,500

  A director of environmental services ensures the cleanliness and safety of an organization's facilities and manages the maintenance and cleaning staff. Your job duties include hiring, training, scheduling, and evaluating staff for your department, researching, developing, and implementing strategies to improve efficiency and outcomes, and conducting inspections of the facility to make sure it meets environmental quality standards. The qualifications for a career as director of environmental services are a bachelor’s degree in facilities management or hospitality management, along with several years of experience in the environmental services field. You also need knowledge of OSHA standards and strong leadership skills.

• Reservoir Engineer

  Salary range: $106,000 - $146,000

  The responsibilities of a reservoir engineer, also known as a petroleum or pipeline engineer, focus on optimizing the fluid flow of petroleum oil and gas through reservoirs. Your duties are to identify and evaluate each oil and gas reserve using special tools and equipment, continuously monitor and optimize the reserve during the drilling process, and analyze the flow mechanics of each reserve to ensure efficiency. Although reservoir engineers can complete some work off-site using computer models of reservoirs and frac sites, you typically travel to different job sites as needed and work long hours as projects develop.

• Environmental Director

  Salary range: $117,500 - $143,000

  An environmental director oversees the environmental performance of an organization. Their duties include the development and implementation of environmental policies and procedures. During the planning process, they may conduct sustainability assessments or research. They often oversee an environmental department and support the allocation of funding towards compliance and sustainability needs. They may need to provide education or outreach to ensure that all procedures are followed.

• Environmental Advisor

  Salary range: $108,000 - $142,000

  As an environmental advisor, your job is to help companies meet or exceed their environmental obligations. This involves reviewing company practices and comparing them to current regulations, visiting sites to inspect them, and providing advice on ecological risks posed by new projects. Fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of an environmental advisor often requires collecting and reporting contamination data, auditing ecological targets, and participating in meetings as necessary. Environmental advisors usually report to an environmental manager or consultant. Most environmental advisors work as contractors or for individual companies and have regular hours, but employers may occasionally call you in to help respond to environmental incidents.

• Sustainability Specialist

  Salary range: $120,500 - $138,000

  A sustainability specialist helps businesses make environmentally responsible policy decisions. Job duties include researching renewable energy, finding sustainable sources for materials and supplies, conducting cost-benefit analyses, preparing reports and project proposals for business leaders, setting goals for the implementation of sustainable practices, and evaluating the success of initiatives. Qualifications include a bachelor’s degree in business or environmental science and communication skills.

• Air Quality Consultant

  Salary range: $125,000 - $135,000

  An air quality consultant is a subspecialty of an environmental science technician. As an air quality consultant, you monitor and report on airborne pollution levels. Duties include collecting samples, measuring emissions, and inspecting businesses to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations. You may work with other environmental scientists to develop a plan to reduce and control contamination. You may specialize in performing analysis in a laboratory setting or conduct fieldwork for a consulting firm or government agency. Other responsibilities involve remediation projects for which you review new construction or evaluate potential environmental threats.

• Environmental Manager

  Salary range: $117,000 - $121,000

  Environmental managers ensure that their organization is completely compliant with all federal and state environmental regulations. As an environmental manager, you create and implement programs to ensure this compliance. Other job duties include confirming that all staff at the organization carries out these regulations correctly. You need a health and science background, as well as knowledge of local laws and regulations concerning air, water, waste, and pollution. To train staff members and your superiors, you will need strong interpersonal skills to follow the programs you’ve laid out.

• Chief Sustainability Officer

  Salary range: $35,000 - $120,000

  A chief sustainability officer (CSO) is an executive who assesses the environmental impact of a company and oversees the approach moving forward. The CSO’s responsibilities include ensuring a company meets or exceeds environmental expectations, often by developing or implementing “green” initiatives, while remaining profitable.

• Environmental Protection Specialist

  Salary range: $69,000 - $116,500

  An environmental protection specialist monitors the quality of our air, water, and soil through testing and data reports. Your job as an environmental protection specialist is to prevent or reduce the pollution of our planet by finding out where pollution is currently or is at risk of taking place due to human activity and enabling businesses and landowners to avoid pollutants in the future. Your duties include working individually or as a team to test the water and air quality against set industry or government standards to ensure compliance from landowners and businesses. After tests are complete, you run reports on your findings and implement a plan to reduce pollution.

• Sustainability Manager

  Salary range: $114,000 - $114,000

  A Sustainability Manager is an individual that is responsible for ensuring that organizations set and meet environmental goals. They develop green policies and initiatives that emphasize the proper use of environmental resources with a focus on sustaining these resources for future generations. As a sustainability manager, your duties include the research, development, and implementation of policies that improve the organization’s environmental impact without detracting from other business goals. You are also responsible for ensuring adherence to all laws and industry regulations.

• Environmental Compliance Manager

  Salary range: $72,000 - $113,000

  As an environmental compliance manager, your primary responsibilities include managing special waste and conducting ecological inspections. Typically dealing with regulatory agencies, you investigate environmental findings and interpret the impact so that plans can go into action. Other duties entail that you are in charge of regulations, track waste programs to make sure they maintain legal standards, and ensure companies and organizations follow the laws in place to protect the environment. You also plan, support, and direct programs to train employees to be compliant with the required practices.

• Sustainability Engineer

  Salary range: $91,500 - $112,500

  As a sustainability engineer, you design and develop products, buildings, and systems to meet certain sustainability specifications or certifications, such as the BREEAM standards for sustainable building or LEED building certifications. Your specific responsibilities differ based on the industry you are in, such as construction, agriculture, or manufacturing. Some engineers work in manufacturing, for example, designing low-energy light bulbs or electric vehicles. Others work in civil engineering where they coordinate and manage large-scale sustainable building projects, including residential and commercial buildings, public parks, or industrial plants.

• Environmental Program Manager

  Salary range: $77,000 - $111,500

  An environmental program manager works with private companies at environmental sites or facilities to plan and develop construction and ensure compliance with environmental regulations in terms of air quality, clean water, pollution, and waste management. In this role, you need to have strong leadership skills and be able to work on projects both alone and with others. Job duties can include obtaining permits and necessary documents to follow federal and state laws, implementing action plans, negotiating costs of supplies, and overseeing employees. Qualifications for this career include at least a bachelor’s degree in environmental science or a related field as well as experience in computer modeling technology.

• Air Quality Specialist

  Salary range: $79,000 - $111,000

  An air quality specialist is a scientist who tests and analyzes the air quality of a specific environment, such as a factory, power plant, or municipality. As an air quality specialist, your job duties can also involve enforcing regulations for vehicle emissions or factory pollution to maintain air quality standards. To become an air quality specialist, you typically need a bachelor’s degree in a field such as environmental science, biology, or chemistry. Your skills and experience should include the ability to collect samples, analyze data, and perform both simple and complex lab tests on samples. Strong communication skills are also essential in this career. Air quality specialists often work in the field to interview and discuss air quality issues with companies and government officials, along with making presentations or recommendations based on their findings.

• Environmental Engineer

  Salary range: $73,500 - $108,500

  Environmental engineers research and develop systems and solutions to environmental problems. They have backgrounds in soil science, chemistry, biology, and engineering, which they apply to the production of architectural systems that address air pollution, water conservation, recycling, sustainability, and public health.

• Environmental Auditor

  Salary range: $72,500 - $106,000

  An environmental auditor conducts detailed analyses of the products and processes of various companies and organizations. As an environmental auditor, your responsibilities include two types of audits: the compliance audit and the management performance audit. A compliance audit determines whether a company meets environmental best practices and legal requirements. A management performance audit evaluates the efficacy of an organization’s processes and management systems. Your job duties as an environmental auditor are to plan auditing projects, conduct site visits and inspections, detect violations of environmental regulations, gather data, prepare reports, recommend steps for improvement, reviewing findings with business management.

• Environmental Remediation Engineer

  Salary range: $91,000 - $104,000

  An environmental remediation engineer helps remove contaminants from groundwater, surface water, and soil to bring the environment back to its natural state. As an environmental remediation engineer, your job duties include collaborating with other engineers to develop removal plans for various pollutants, visiting spill sites, and overseeing removal and remediation efforts. Your primary responsibilities are to monitor the levels of contaminants and protect the ecosystem, animal habitats, and public health.

• Environmental Project Manager

  Salary range: $69,500 - $101,000

  As an environmental project manager, you work on construction, waste management, and engineering projects with the goal of assessing the ecological impact of the work and reporting it to the relevant regulatory agencies. Your duties involve suggesting and investigating methods for mitigating environmental impact and developing best practices for project managers to follow. Educational qualifications include a bachelor’s or master’s degree in environmental sciences or project management. Prior work experience in engineering or construction will set you ahead of other candidates and allow you to gather the knowledge and skills required to work on larger projects.

• Environmental Compliance Engineer

  Salary range: $37,500 - $100,000

  The job duties of an environmental compliance engineer include ensuring that a company or organization adheres to environmental protection regulations and performs necessary reporting related to their environmental footprint. As an environmental compliance engineer, you raise awareness about environmental policies and, after analyzing your employer or client's operations, you provide solutions or create programs so that they can improve their environmental performance. In this career, you may work as a consultant for a variety of companies or a single entity as an in-house compliance engineer.

• Environmental Scientist

  Salary range: $75,000 - $98,500

  Environmental scientists conduct research designed to recognize hazardous conditions that affect the environment or public health, such as pollution or water contamination, and suggest ways to control or remove them. This research generally involves collecting and analyzing various environmental samples, examining published data from other scientists, and exploring connections between the results and human activity. Environmental scientists need to be excellent communicators and writers, preparing reports, research papers, and presentations that demonstrate and defend their findings.

• Environmental Economist

  Salary range: $69,000 - $98,500

  The job duties of an environmental economist focus on the research of economics as it relates to the environment, natural resources, and air and water quality. Your responsibilities in this career may include performing a cost-benefit analysis on sustainable energy solutions, assessing the economic impact of pollution or climate change issues, or determining the feasibility of natural resource management plans. You research, develop, and recommend projects that meet both financial needs and environmental goals for a city, state, or private company. Environmental economists may use statistical analysis and forecasting software to test their projections and perform research.

• Environmental Officer

  Salary range: $54,500 - $97,500

  An environmental officer ensures that an organization is in compliance with environmental regulations and standards related to pollution and waste management. Your responsibilities in this career include sampling the soil and water near your facilities for further analysis at a laboratory. You also inspect and test the output of the company’s equipment using a variety of tools and methods, depending on the contaminant. You prepare reports of your findings and share your results with the businesses or agencies. If you work as an environmental officer in a consulting firm, you may make recommendations to help organizations reduce their environmental impacts with projects like recycling or making energy-efficiency improvements.

• Environmental Analyst

  Salary range: $49,500 - $92,000

  Environmental Analysts work to help government agencies develop legislation designed to protect the environment from various contamination sources such as hazardous materials. Environmental Analysts can work for public or private entities, and those who work for private corporations may be tasked with ensuring that their company complies with governmental regulations. Some job responsibilities could include analyzing or collecting meteorological data, soil, and water samples. You may also assist in creating environmental disaster response plans, as well as ways human behavior could be modified to preserve the environment. Finally, some Environmental Analysts may be tasked with educating the public on how their actions affect the environment.

• Environmental Health and Safety Specialist

  Salary range: $63,000 - $90,000

  As an environmental health and safety specialist, your primary responsibilities are to evaluate locations like factories, plants, and mines and make sure they comply with workplace safety standards and environmental regulations. Your job duties include assessing the safety levels of industrial facilities, using specialized equipment to take and record measurements, and providing written documentation of your findings. Your responsibilities may include providing training for employees to ensure compliance with government regulations and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. In the public sector, you may be involved with the creation of regulations for environmental and workplace safety.