The 20 Best Jobs With the Highest Satisfaction

We all know salary is an important consideration when choosing a career, but it’s far from the only thing. For many people, enjoying the work they do on a day-to-day basis is what matters most of all. So what are the jobs people find the most satisfaction in?

To find out, we looked at the 50 Best Jobs in America and ranked them in order of job satisfaction. Below are the top 20 with the highest job satisfaction scores — if you’re the kind of person who puts your happiness first, consider applying to one of the positions listed here today!

 

1. Corporate Recruiter

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.3

Median Base Salary: $65,000

Companies Hiring: Continuum Behavioral Health, ReliaQuest, EVERFI, Brooksource, Pariveda Solutions & more

 

2. Reliability Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score:  4.3

Median Base Salary: $92,000

Companies Hiring: SABIC, Sonos, Extra Space, BOEING, Allison Transmission & more

 

3. Creative Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.3

Median Base Salary: $110,000

Companies Hiring: Fanatics, Sojern, Collabera, Starbucks Coffee, Shopcore Properties & more

 

4. Compliance Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.3

Median Base Salary: $96,000

Companies Hiring: BNB Bank, Veritas Collaborative, LCSWMA, Chemtrade, Cascade Management & more

 

5. Data Scientist

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.2

Median Base Salary: $110,000

Companies Hiring: Improbable, Aera Technology, Motorola Solutions, RetailMeNot, Phoenix Operations Group & more

 

6. Front End Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.2

Median Base Salary: $100,000

Companies Hiring: Cornerstone Information Systems, Tophatter, Citrix, Quicken Loans, MiTek Industries & more

 

7. Hardware Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.2

Median Base Salary: $115,000

Companies Hiring: NetApp, SGS Consulting, VeriSilicon, Teradyne, DENSO North America & more

 

8. Risk Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.2

Median Base Salary: $97,000

Companies Hiring: Amazon, EVRAZ North America, American Woodmark, Rolle Schmidt & Associates, Aurora Health Care & more

 

9. Strategy Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.2

Median Base Salary: $135,000

Companies Hiring: iNvolved Media, Storyblocks, NerdWallet, ChannelAdvisor, GWC Warranty & more

 

10. Mobile Developer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.1

Median Base Salary: $90,000

Companies Hiring: IntraEdge, KVH Industries, Murtech Consulting, Vermont Information Processing, IBM & more

 

11. Strategic Account Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.1

Median Base Salary: $85,000

Companies Hiring: C.H. Briggs, DairiConcepts LP, John Galt Solutions, Dymax, Directly Software & more

 

12. Site Reliability Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.1

Median Base Salary: $120,000

Companies Hiring: Booking.com, Shipt, Pandora, SharpSpring, SugarCRM & more

 

13. Manufacturing Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.0

Median Base Salary: $72,000

Companies Hiring: Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories, Mott Corporation, ROCKWOOL, IM Flash Technologies, Mercury Systems & more

 

14. Occupational Therapist

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.0

Median Base Salary: $74,000

Companies Hiring: Jackson Jade Speech and Occupational Therapy, MedCare Pediatric Group, Tender Touch Rehab Services, UCHealth, Critical Connection & more

 

15. DevOps Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.0

Median Base Salary: $105,000

Companies Hiring: TokBox, LLamasoft, Earnest, Wolverine Trading, Kraken Bitcoin Exchange & more

 

16. Marketing Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 4.0

Median Base Salary: $85,000

Companies Hiring: Alturas Analytics Inc., Five9 Inc., Emineo Marketing Solutions, GTM Sportswear, Ecumen & more

 

17. Business Intelligence Developer

Job Satisfaction Score: 3.9

Median Base Salary: $86,000

Companies Hiring: Bloomberg, Mobile Mini, Transamerica, Ascension, Paychex Inc. & more

 

18. Electrical Engineer

Job Satisfaction Score: 3.9

Median Base Salary: $76,000

Companies Hiring: Sanimax, Pilkington North America, Shive-Hattery, California Water Service, POWER Engineers & more

 

19. HR Generalist

Job Satisfaction Score: 3.9

Median Base Salary: $57,120

Companies Hiring: Root, Cloudability, Tax Analysts, Butterball, Care Dimensions & more

 

20. HR Manager

Job Satisfaction Score: 3.9

Median Base Salary: $85,000

Companies Hiring: NetWorth Realty, Hargray, Morrison Healthcare, Uline, Patch of Land & more

 

Methodology: To identify the 20 Best Jobs With the Highest Satisfaction, we ranked Glassdoor’s 50 Best Jobs in America for 2018 in order of job satisfaction. For full Best Jobs in America results and methodology, see here.

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