High-paying jobs that are easy to get into

US occupations that pay $90k or more yet have the lowest barriers to entry, ranked by a modeled difficulty score (education, cost, licensing, competition). Pay is real BLS data; difficulty is a modeled estimate.

1. Software QA & Testers$104k
2. Computer Programmers$100k
3. iOS Developers$136k
4. Frontend Engineers$93k
5. Web & Digital Designers$104k
6. Computer Systems Analysts$106k
7. Database Administrators$105k
8. Atmospheric Scientists$99k
9. Technical Science Writers$90k
10. Motion Graphics Designers$102k
11. Budget Analysts$92k
12. Administrative Services Managers$114k
13. Power Plant Operators$102k
14. UX Researchers$117k
15. Firmware Engineers$162k
16. Cloud Engineers$99k
17. Data Scientists$120k
18. Electronics Engineers$130k
19. Materials Scientists$118k
20. Musicians & Singers$99k
21. Training & Development Managers$133k
22. Purchasing Managers$148k
23. Sales Engineers$125k
24. Transit & Railroad Police$90k
25. Railroad Safety Inspectors$92k

Pay and outlook: BLS (OEWS 2025, Employment Projections 2024-2034). Skills: O*NET 30.3. AI exposure and future-proof scores are modeled estimates. How we model AI exposure.