Highest Paid Jobs Involving Innovation

Innovation isn't for the faint-hearted, but big rewards require big risks. These careers offer some very high paying jobs.

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Highest Paying Jobs That Involve Innovation

Do you enjoy coming up with novel solutions to established problems? Do "tried-and-true" methods frustrate or bore you?

Truly innovative people are constantly thinking about how things could be improved, built upon, or altered to work more efficiently. In career settings, they are natural leaders, adept at setting goals, pushing boundaries, and helping their more conservative colleagues think bigger.

While not all professions are well-suited to innovative people, there are a number of prestigious positions in which forward-thinking individuals will thrive.

Here are CareerExplorer's Top Jobs for Innovative People:

This article will be covering the following careers:

Career Avg Salary Satisfaction Your Match
Chief Executive $213k 3.9/5
Sustainability Officer $213k 3.6/5
Advertising Manager $143k 3.1/5
Fundraising Manager $132k 2.9/5
Astronomer $139k 4.0/5
Aerospace Engineer $123k 3.6/5
Mathematician $112k 3.6/5
Art Director $115k 3.8/5
Biochemist $113k 3.4/5
68% Match?

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1. Chief Executive

Chief executives devise policies, develop strategies, and set goals to keep their organization on track. This is a leadership position that appears in almost every industry, at almost ever level of business. Chief executives set the agenda for their company or organization, offering a unique opportunity to improve processes, finesse practices, and create change for the better.

Chief Executive Chief Executive

Chief Executive

Your Match?

In the broadest sense, a chief executive refers to the top executive or leader within an organization or entity.

2. Sustainability Officer

Sustainability officers are naturally improvement-focused. Their key role within an organization is to ensure all employee and manufacturing activities are in line with sustainability goals. They assess and evaluate current production methods or policies and offer suggestions for how they could be improved to reduce environmental impact. For forward-thinking individuals with fresh ideas, this can be an incredibly rewarding career choice.

Sustainability Officer Sustainability Officer

Sustainability Officer

Your Match?

A sustainability officer is responsible for guiding an organization's efforts to become more environmentally, socially, and economically responsible.

3. Advertising Manager

Advertising managers are responsible for creating the overall vision behind a company's advertising campaigns. No matter what their specific role, their key goal is always to generate interest in a service or product. They may complete a wide range of tasks to achieve that goal, from writing advertising copy to investing in new forms of promotion. This makes advertising manager an excellent career choice for people who enjoy taking risks—bold thinkers who will make the creative and financial decisions needed to succeed in today's crowded market.

Advertising Manager Advertising Manager

Advertising Manager

Your Match?

An advertising manager is responsible for planning, implementing, and managing advertising campaigns to promote products, services, or brands.

4. Fundraising Manager

Fundraising managers are the fiery individuals who keep organizations and nonprofits afloat. These wily professionals oversee the fundraising department, helping to organize events, develop donor relations, and brainstorm other creative strategies for maximizing donations. For socially-oriented people who enjoy taking out-of-the-box approaches, this can be an extremely engaging career.

Fundraising Manager Fundraising Manager

Fundraising Manager

Your Match?

A fundraising manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and overseeing campaigns and activities to secure funds for nonprofit organizations, charities, or other causes.

5. Astronomer

Astronomers are natural wonderers, scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding the stars, galaxies, and planets above us. These highly inquisitive individuals spend their time collecting and analyzing data, writing research papers, or creating innovative computer programs that can be used to better understand the night sky and all of its mysteries.

Astronomer Astronomer

Astronomer

Your Match?

An astronomer studies celestial objects and phenomena in the universe.

6. Aerospace Engineer

Aerospace engineers are constantly striving to improve on their own creations, as well as those of their colleagues. These highly trained professionals design, test, and help manufacture a wide array of aircrafts, satellites, missiles, and spacecrafts. In addition for assessing safety and the basic functionality of these products, they also spend a great deal of time in research and development. No matter what the end product, it could always be adapted to fly more efficiently, quickly, or economically.

Aerospace Engineer Aerospace Engineer

Aerospace Engineer

Your Match?

An aerospace engineer specializes in the design, development, and maintenance of aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and other related systems.

7. Mathematician

Mathematicians are found in a dazzling array of settings: from business and technology to engineering and academia. These deep-thinking individuals enjoy complex problem solving. On a day-to-day basis, they might spend their time developing new mathematical principles, building models to resolve practical issues, or creating novel computational methods and computer codes. A career in this field can look very different depending on the setting, but at the core of any math job is a love of innovation and progress.

Mathematician Mathematician

Mathematician

Your Match?

A mathematician specializes in the study and exploration of mathematics.

8. Art Director

Art directors tend to be highly creative, decisive individuals. They liaise with diverse groups of people—from book designers to advertising professionals–to determine the overall look and feel of a wide range of products. For example, they may produce images for a newspaper, television show, a dance performance, or a video game. No matter what they're working on, art directors have a great degree of control. This is an ideal position for people who aren't afraid to push the envelope when it comes to achieving their goals.

Art Director Art Director

Art Director

Your Match?

An art director is responsible for overseeing and managing the visual aspects of a project, such as advertisements, films, video games, publications, or website designs.

9. Biochemist

Biochemist is just one of many rewarding science careers that involve innovation. Biochemists spend their days investigating the chemical and physical principles of living things, designing and conducting new studies in order to deepen their understanding of the natural world. Combining a love of learning with a rigorous scientific approach, this is an exciting career option for individuals who value originality.

Biochemist Biochemist

Biochemist

Your Match?

Biochemistry is a branch of science that focuses on the chemical reactions and processes that occur within living organisms.