Career at NASA helping with launches, spaceflight voted in survey as 'coolest' in Florida
3 ... 2 ... 1 ... liftoff!
A career at NASA helping to execute both crewed and uncrewed rocket launches from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was recently voted as the "coolest" job in all of the state.
That's according to a study conducted by career.io, which surveyed 3,002 job seekers asking them to name the coolest positions in every state in the U.S.
"The results paint a vivid picture of ambition, adventure, and some seriously cool roles," according to a statement from the company, a platform that offers a range of job search and career advancement tools, including a resume-builder.
Here's what to know about the role of a mission engineer, selected as the "coolest" job in Florida.
Mission engineers can earn six-figure salaries overseeing rocket liftoffs at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, where a constant cadence of launches keeps NASA busy every week, according to Career.io.
The career services platform described the job in its survey as "high-pressure work where precision matters-and one wrong call could scrub the countdown" for launches viewed around the world.
"For engineers drawn to adrenaline, spaceflight, and real-time impact, this Florida gig offers front-row seats to history with fire and thunder," Career.io said.
Turns out, mission engineer is not a specific title, but a descriptor that can apply to many different positions at Kennedy Space Center, a NASA spokeswoman said in an email to the USA TODAY Network.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida employs about 2,100 federal civil servants, about 120 of whom are 'operations engineers," the agency said. Mission operators are responsible for anything from developing and planning spaceflight operations, to training astronauts selected for a crew.
Those who may be considered mission engineers have more official titles like launch director – responsible, in part, for carrying out launch countdowns – or landing and recovering director, a position tasked with retrieving astronauts and their vehicles when they land back on Earth.
"This career field encompasses a range of specialized engineers who enable successful launch and other operations for Earth's premier spaceport," according to a statement.
It's not only NASA whose spacecraft launch from Cape Canaveral, but also private vehicles developed by SpaceX, Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company. In April 2025, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' "Amazon rocket launch" also took flight at Kennedy Space Center, contracting with United Launch Alliance to deliver the first 27 of more than 3,200 planned internet satellites into low-Earth orbit for its Project Kuiper mission.
The U.S. space agency also contracts with SpaceX for its series of so-called Crew missions, which regularly sends astronauts to the International Space Station to conduct about six-months of science research at a time. The missions under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which use a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launch from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A.
NASA employees with "operations engineer" in their job description are involved with planning and executing the Crew missions, as well as regular resupply missions to the space station.
Operations engineers also play myriad roles in commencing and overseeing uncrewed scientific missions, such as the Europa Clipper that launched in October 2024 bound for a Jupiter moon. Coming up, they'll be crucial for planning the future human missions around and to the moon under the agency's Artemis lunar program, which will get off the ground in Florida.
As the landing and recovering director for the Artemis II mission planned for 2026, Lili Villarreal is among NASA's employees who could be considered a missions operations engineer.
Named to the position in 2023, Villarreal joined NASA in 2007 after beginning her career as a Boeing contractor. For the upcoming lunar mission, she'll lead a team that will recover four astronauts set to embark on a 10-day trip circumnavigating – but not landing on – the moon when they splashdown back on Earth in the Orion capsule.
"I really wanted it because it's an exciting and rewarding job, but it also comes with significant responsibility," Villarreal said in a statement to the USA TODAY Network. "As the recovery director, you're not just responsible for the safety of the crew, you're also responsible for the safety of everybody who helps recover the crew."
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: What's the 'coolest' job in Florida? Survey finds it's this NASA job
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