An environmental consultant who investigates and recommends cleanup approaches for sites with soil or groundwater contamination — Phase I and II assessments, risk modeling, remediation design. Often billable, often technical, often advising lawyers and lenders.
Most weeks tend to mix fieldwork, lab data review, and report writing — overseeing sampling crews on site, processing analytical results, drafting findings for clients and regulators. You're often on a project with a lender, an attorney, and a regulator all watching the same dataset. Billable hours and reports delivered are the operating outputs.
What's harder than people expect is how much the deliverable rests on judgment, not just data — every site has gaps in its history, and conclusions have to hold up under regulator review or in court. Employer variance is real: large consultancies specialize you within a discipline; boutiques throw you into everything from Phase I through closure.
People who tend to thrive here have technical curiosity and a defensible writing style — your reports are read by people who want to dispute them. Licensure (PG, PE, state-specific) often unlocks senior responsibility. The trade-off is deadline-driven evenings and the constant background hum of utilization targets.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Business Operations roles →An environmental consultant who investigates and recommends cleanup approaches for sites with soil or groundwater contamination — Phase I and II assessments, risk modeling, remediation design. Often billable, often technical, often advising lawyers and lenders.
Median pay for a Contaminated Land Consultant is about $137K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $69K to $228K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Complex Problem Solving, Coordination, Monitoring, Speaking, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 4.5% through 2034, with roughly 630,980 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Senior Contaminated Land Consultant, Environmental Project Manager, and Brownfields Practice Leader.
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