Technology

Operations Research Analyst in the United States

25 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 25 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

Bachelor's DegreeAccredited institution
12%
3 of 25 postingsAccredited institution →
Master's DegreeAccredited institution
8%
2 of 25 postingsAccredited institution →
Secret Security ClearanceU.S. Government (DCSA)
8%
2 of 25 postingsU.S. Government (DCSA) →
CPAAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy
4%
1 of 25 postings$1,500 exam · fee checked 2026-08~400 hrs prepAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy →
TS/SCIU.S. Government (DCSA)
4%
1 of 25 postingsU.S. Government (DCSA) →

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own

$1,500CPA · ~400 hrs

asked for in 1 of 25 postings — 4%

If you earned all 1 of them

$1,500

fees checked 2026-08

400 hrs

400 hours — about 40 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Master's Degree — cost varies by institution; Secret Security Clearance — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable; TS/SCI — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job

43%reported master’s degree

Master’s degree43%
Bachelor’s degree33%
Doctoral degree14%

Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

O*NET 15-2031.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$57,060

10th percentile

$88,940

median

$159,910

90th percentile

Every credential above costs $1,500 — about 4 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Zoox · Anduril Industries · Applied Intuition · Nuro · 360 IT Professionals · Attentive · City of New York · Ginkgo Bioworks · HelloFresh · Instacart · MongoDB · Nimble Robotics · OpenAI · Pika · Reddit · Relativity Space · Roblox · SpaceX