{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/aerospace-engineering-and-operations-technologists-and-technicians/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians", "soc_code": "17-3021", "category": "Engineering", "us_employment": 11280, "median_annual_wage": 82890 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 45, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 11, "embodiment": 15, "liability_shield": 4, "trust_premium": 6, "judgment_accountability": 9 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Instrumenting a test article — routing thermocouple leads, torquing fixtures to a rig, chasing a noisy channel back to a bad ground — resists automation, but the other half of the shift is data reduction in MATLAB/Python, filling out test logs, and drafting report sections against templates, all of which current tools already draft credibly, which is why this lands at 11 rather than the 15+ a pure test-floor role would earn.", "embodiment": "The work happens in wind tunnel test sections, on vibration and thermal-vac stands, in hangars and on flight lines with hydraulics, cryogens, high-pressure pneumatics and energized ordnance circuits — uncontrolled enough to require PPE and safety watch protocols, and the 15 rather than 18 reflects that these are fixed company facilities with known configurations, not field repair in weather.", "liability_shield": "There is no PE stamp or FAA certificate on this role — the design engineer signs the test plan and the licensed engineer signs the analysis, while ASTM/NAS certifications and NDT Level II tickets are employer-preferred rather than statutory, so the 4 reflects credentialing that gates hiring but creates no personal legal exposure.", "trust_premium": "Value comes from knowing which channel on rig 3 always drifts and which technician can be trusted to torque a flight fixture, which is real institutional trust inside a program team, but the customer never meets you and the test report goes out under the engineering organization's name — hence 6, not the 13+ of a client-facing role.", "judgment_accountability": "Calling a test abort, deciding whether a suspect strain reading is instrumentation or structure, and red-lining a procedure mid-run are genuine discretionary calls, but they escalate immediately to the test conductor and responsible engineer under documented safety-of-test rules, which caps this at 9 rather than the mid-teens where the ambiguous call stops with you." }, "rationale": "The modal worker splits time between physical test work — installing strain gauges and telemetry, rigging test articles in wind tunnels and vibration rigs, running ground support equipment, troubleshooting instrumentation that reads wrong — and screen work like reducing test data, writing test reports, and maintaining calibration and configuration records. The screen half is squarely in AI's strike zone; the hands-on half needs a body in a hangar, on a test stand, or at a launch console. No license protects the role, but defense clearances, ITAR restrictions, and safety-critical procedure discipline keep the work onshore and human-supervised.", "outlook": "Headcount stays small and roughly flat as AI absorbs data reduction and report writing, while the surviving jobs concentrate in hands-on test instrumentation, facility operation, and live test conduct.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "If AI absorbs data reduction, report drafting and calibration record-keeping, the residual job becomes instrumentation troubleshooting, test-setup design and anomaly triage — the tier where a strain gauge reads wrong for a physical reason no dataset predicts. Task-mix shift, no law needed; visible already where test orgs push technicians toward test conductor roles.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "If test programs shift toward more hardware-rich campaigns (hypersonics, new launch vehicle qualification, FAA Part 450 flight-test articles), the share of rigging, gauge installation and stand work per engineer rises. Also NASA/AFRL ranges retaining manual ground support equipment operation rather than autonomous test stands.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Not a licensure route, but a documentation-accountability route: if FAA Part 21/145-style rules or DCMA quality clauses require a named, qualified human to sign test data as flight-worthy evidence — analogous to A&P sign-off on maintenance, or NADCAP AC7101 audits requiring named operator certification — the signature becomes personally attributable. Watch NADCAP and AS9100 revisions on AI-generated inspection/test records, and FAA guidance on ODA use of machine-generated compliance data.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If range-safety and test-readiness review practice formalizes a technician-level 'stop test' authority with named accountability — already implicit in NASA test conductor and launch console GO/NO-GO polling — and if DoD/NASA policy bars AI systems from being the authority for a NO-GO call on safety-critical test operations, the consequential-call ownership becomes explicit rather than customary.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "The strongest realistic gains are institutional (attributable sign-off on test evidence, formalized stop-test authority), not capability-based. Even fully realized, this stays a supervised-technician role rather than a licensed profession; screen-half erosion caps how far task_resistance can climb." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2019, "emp": 11540, "wage": 66020 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 11900, "wage": 68570 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 10900, "wage": 73580 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 9750, "wage": 74410 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 10640, "wage": 77830 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 9060, "wage": 79830 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 11280, "wage": 82890 } ], "from": 2019, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -2.3, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": false }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "avionics-technicians", "title": "Avionics Technicians", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 71, "median_wage": 82280, "overlap": 83, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Installation", "Troubleshooting" ] }, { "slug": "aircraft-mechanics-and-service-technicians", "title": "Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 71, "median_wage": 79870, "overlap": 82, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Troubleshooting", "Equipment Selection" ] }, { "slug": "electrical-and-electronics-repairers-powerhouse-substation-and-relay", "title": "Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "median_wage": 103020, "overlap": 71, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }