Pin down what counts as better
Learn whether the manager puts lower cost or shorter waits first, and record constraints every plan must meet.
Career profile
Operations Research Analyst
Operations research analysts use math to find workable plans despite scarce hours, money, or capacity.
Which schedule gets the job done for the least money? Answering it means building a model, comparing plans, and explaining what each one trades away.
A day in the life
Catch bad data early
Compare database entries with operating records, chasing missing times or impossible-looking quantities before they skew the result.
Feed the equations to a solver
Write hours available, work required, and costs as equations, then let optimization software seek a fitting schedule.
Test the model before recommending
Test model output against real outcomes, fix wrong assumptions, then show managers each feasible option's costs and gains.
Quick facts
Bachelor’s degree typical
United States
$88,940 a year
United States · May 2025
11.9% projected growth
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Bachelor’s degree typicalSome employers prefer or require a master’s degree.
Pay
$88,940 a yearNational median; the hourly equivalent is $42.76.
Outlook
11.9% projected growthAbout 7,500 openings annually, on average, including replacement openings.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You enjoy finding a good solution while obeying several rules.
- You want to know why a mathematically neat answer fails in practice.
- You like explaining your reasoning to people who use different tools.
Things to weigh
- Goals can conflict, and information can be incomplete. You may have to recommend a compromise.
- Expect mostly full-time office work, with writing and presentations alongside the calculations.
Where AI may help
Solvers can compare large numbers of possible plans and rerun a model when costs or capacity change.
What people still lead
You decide how to represent the real problem and explain which tradeoffs the proposed answer contains.
What we can’t predict yet
How far planning can run automatically depends on whether changing conditions fit the model and which decisions people are willing to delegate.
Pay in context
Earnings
Pay varies substantially by workplace.
The national spread
The median was $88,940 annually, or $42.76 hourly. The 10th-percentile wage was $57,060 and the 90th was $159,910. These are wage positions, not starting and senior salaries.
Workplace differences
Annual medians were $139,980 in federal government, $108,120 in manufacturing, and $80,870 in finance and insurance. These compare groups of workers, not individual offers.
Openings over the decade
Employment is projected to grow 11.9%, with about 7,500 openings per year on average. Openings include replacing workers who leave the occupation; they are not all newly created jobs.
Getting started
Earn a quantitative bachelor’s degree
- What the route involves
- Study operations research, mathematics, engineering, computer science, or a related field with extensive mathematics coursework.
- What it can lead to
- This meets the typical education level for entry.
- What to check
- Some positions require a master’s degree.
Plan your coursework for federal roles
- What the route involves
- For federal Operations Research Series 1515, earn a degree in operations research, or a degree with at least 24 semester hours in the specified quantitative subjects, including at least 3 in calculus.
- What it can lead to
- You can satisfy the series’ basic education requirement even when your degree has another title.
- What to check
- The vacancy’s grade-level qualifications and any specialized subject requirements still apply. Check your transcript against the listed courses.
Build substantial mathematics and computing skills.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get established
Learn the organization’s records and reproduce an existing model’s results.
Carry a model into use
Take responsibility for testing a model and helping coworkers use its recommendations.
Become a methods specialist
Develop deeper expertise in optimization or simulation and advise other analysts on which methods suit their problems.
Where you can work
Airline planning offices
Scheduling decisions connect passenger demand, fuel costs, pilot availability, and maintenance. Your model must account for those competing demands.
- Office
Federal technical analysis teams
You may compare proposed systems with engineers and scientists. The work can require combining performance, cost, and uncertainty into advice for government decision makers.
- Office
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
On paper or in a spreadsheet, schedule four fictional volunteers across three event shifts. Give each person limited availability and require two people per shift. Find a workable schedule, then try to distribute hours more evenly. Notice whether you enjoy translating rules into a plan—and explaining why some wishes cannot all be met.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Operations Research Analysts. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine. 15-2031.00 — Operations Research Analysts. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- O*NET OnLine / U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Wages: Operations Research Analysts. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Projections and Worker Characteristics. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Operations Research Series 1515. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Professional Work in the Mathematical Sciences Group, 1500. Accessed 2026-10-03.
- Gurobi Optimization. Optimization for Operations Researchers. Accessed 2026-10-03.