Least Stressful High Paying Jobs

What good is a high-paying job if you’re too stressed to enjoy the fruits of your labor? Sure, making $250,000 a year is great, but if you have a heart attack at 45, you’re not going to be in any shape to take advantage of your hard earned salary. 

Work-life balance is critical to manage, and everyone’s preferences differ. One person may be thrilled by the intensity of a high stress job like a trauma surgeon, another might be overwhelmed by serving as an executive personal assistant. 

To help you job hunters strike the right balance between high pay and low stress, we’ve assembled a list of the least stressful high paying jobs – these are jobs that we’ve found with a median pay of at least $100,000 that have a solid work life balance, allowing you to enjoy your time when you’re off the clock. 

What are the key components of a low stress job? 

The least stressful jobs have these key elements.

No sales targets

The pressure of having to hit sales targets, combined with the stress of having a commission-based pay structure, can be mentally taxing on many employees. 

Regular hours 

Long shifts, working weekends, and unexpected hour changes negatively impact employee wellbeing to a significant degree. 

No emergencies 

Putting out fires is part of most jobs, but true emergencies and the expectation of rapid responses from employees are key contributions to a high-stress working environment. The least stressful jobs have a “nothing is so important it can’t wait until the morning” mantra. 

No on call expectation

Employees can sleep soundly at night, knowing they won’t be expected to jump in on an after-hours emergency. 

No organizational politics

Leadership politicking is an unfortunate aspect of jobs the higher up you get. Our least stressful high paying jobs are all insulated from the organizational politicking by being in data driven positions that are removed from territoriality, factionalism, and gatekeeping that often bring about office politics. 

No risk of unfair blame, no undue responsibility.

With some jobs, if a program fails (like a sales target), the person responsible has a target on their back. If the website goes down or is hacked, the web admin or the CISO responsible suddenly gets a lot of heat until things are resolved – and if things aren’t resolved mess-free, their job can be on the line. 

The list of jobs we’ve put together are all free of sales targets, have no emergency management expectations, and rarely require extra hours. These jobs are important, and the work they complete provides meaningful impact, but there is a distinct lack of urgency and pressure surrounding the job itself. 

Top ten least stressful high paying jobs

1. Learning & Development Analyst

Median Salary: $145,000 

Degree required: Bachelor’s 

Learning and Development Analysts build out employee training programs to build up skills and knowledge for their workforce. They analyze performance data, conduct employee interviews, lead development seminars, and implement individual programs of study to ultimately upskill employees. In the age of new AI tools coming online on a weekly basis, this investment into employee development is a critical process that helps companies and employees stay competitive. 

The Learning & Development Analyst is considered a low stress position because it has regular hours, no sales expectations, and is not on the hook for unfair blame. 

2. Actuary 

Median Salary: $155,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s, industry certifications 

While most of us who have interacted with actuaries know them from creating life insurance premiums, actuaries are involved in many different industries and projects. Actuaries use math and statistics to analyze risk. These analyses are used to make financial decisions such as investment and insurance.

3. HR Business Partner 

Median salary: $175,500

Degree required: Bachelor’s

An HR Business Partner is a unique, senior-level HR role that collaborates with C-suite and other senior leaders within a business to create HR and training programs that specifically cater to the leaders’ needs. Less administrative and more development focused, HRBPs are the HR engine that helps power employee growth and retention. 

While they may also oversee some traditional HR elements such as recruiting, retention, onboarding, and rewards; they are more focused on creating and executing overall HR strategy in partnership with other senior leaders. It’s a highly impactful role with leadership opportunities that allows for a meaningful work/life balance.

4. Director of Scientific Affairs

Median salary: $219,500

Degree Required: Bachelor’s, PhD preferred

The Director of Scientific Affairs position is employed at a variety of industries, including biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, universities & research institutions, and clinical laboratories. 

The Director, Scientific Affairs oversees research teams while also serving as the face of the lab or institution by engaging in outreach, grant management, and liaising between technical employees and leadership. 

This position is also included on our list of highest-paid jobs for 2026 (AFRODITA, add link to blog) – the only job we have that cracks the top ten on both lists, making this quite a rare, high-paying role that has a significantly lower stress level compared to most.

5. Senior UX Researcher

Median salary: $155,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s preferred

Senior UX Researchers proactively design solutions that improve the user experience. They need to conduct consumer research, partner with product + design teams, and use both qualitative and quantitative methods to drive improvement in UX. This is not simply solving user challenges; this position drives the user experience program itself. 

As the UX process is iterative, not time-bound, this position also qualifies as low-stress. Each research program provides valuable insights on how to improve processes, and then the implementation of the processes ultimately benefits consumers.

6. Director of Learning + Development

Median salary: $149,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s

The Director of Learning + Development leads the L+D division, often a subset of the HR or People function. Like the L&D analyst (mentioned earlier in this article), the Director of L+D works in upskilling and developing the employee workforce. However, unlike the analyst, which works much more tactically to implement programs, the Director creates and oversees the entire L+ D curriculum. The director works with other senior leadership to ensure that the development programs are being appropriately applied, identify key L+D needs, and ensure that the L+D curriculum forwards the company’s overall vision. 

7. Director of Market Research and Insights

Median salary: $155,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s

Market Research refers to the function of analyzing market trends and consumer behavior. The Director of Market Research helms this function, often managing a team of analysts or mid-level managers to design a continuously improving robust market research process. The director leads the team to develop competitor analysis and analyse shifting market landscapes to create actionable insights that the company can act upon. 

In this way, the director of market research exists as a bridge between the data and business execution functions within a company. 

This position requires extensive leadership and market research experience. However, due to its insulation from high-stress components such as executive politics or sales quotas, it still remains one of the least stressful high paying jobs on our list.

8. Transportation Planner

Median salary: $171,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s

Transportation planners are future thinkers. They draw up the plans for future roadways, pedestrian walkways, bikeways, railways, waterways, and airways to allow for the growth and prosperity of cities. 

Transportation planners also work to optimize existing routes, analyzing data to see how routes are currently used, identifying opportunities for improvement, and working with engineers to implement improvements. 

Transportation planners also focus heavily on the logistics of implementing plans, ensuring that necessary resources are delivered and that impacts and disruptions are fully accounted for. 

As the transportation planner is an office job who typically works for the government on projecfts that take place over long timelines (10+ years), this job tends to be a low,stress position without a great deal of urgency.

9. Director of Compensation

Median salary: $165,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s required, Master’s preferred

Directors of Compensation design the pay structure for all the roles within a company, making sure that everyone is compensated fairly for the work they provide. 

To successfully implement a program, the Director of Compensation must research market trends to make sure offers attract talent, that bonus + raise structures effectively retain top talent, that all packages are legally compliant, and that the compensation structure is seen as overall fair and meritocratic – balancing both company performance and individual contribution.

10. Statistician

Median Salary: $103,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s required, 

In 10th place for the least stressful, high paying jobs is the statistician. Statisticians primarily analyze internal and external data to synthesize meaningful findings, and then present their findings and recommendations to leadership teams. Statisticians hunt for data by conducting polls, surveys, and experiments, and use statistical modeling techniques to create business solutions.

Bonus: most stressful high paying jobs

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the highest paying, highest stress jobs all feature long hours, urgency, organizational politics, and extreme targets. 

Here are the top five most stressful high paying jobs, as opposed to the least. 

Managing Director, Investment Banking

Median salary: $255,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s, MBA preferred

The Managing director of investment banking is the highest ranking position within the investment banking hierarchy. They are heavily involved in finding clients, winning deals, and creating the overall strategy for the financial institution. As they are ultimately responsible for risk management, investment performance, and gaining new business, they are required to work very long hours and manage a lot of emergencies. 

Ultimately, the buck stops with a managing director, and this level of responsibility puts a tremendous amount of stress on the banking director. 

Similarly, the director and VP positions within the investment banking system are also extremely high stress. 

Chief Executive Officer

Median salary: $200,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s, MBA preferred

The CEO is the ultimate “buck stops here” position. As the CEO is ultimately responsible for the overall performance of the company, there is an extreme amount of responsibility put on the shoulders of the CEO. This, combined with board expectations, employee evaluations, performance targets, and emergency/on-call expectations; mean that the CEO has a high stress burden put on them. 

Chief Financial Officer

Median salary: $175,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s, MBA preferred

The CFO, who ultimately reports to the CEO, is the ultimate financial authority at a company. The CFO manages finance directors, the comptroller, and other finance employees within an organization. They oversee risk management, financial planning, compliance, and capital management. 

In short, if it deals with money, the CFO is in charge of it. 

Chief Operating Officer

Median salary: $175,000

Degree required: Bachelor’s, MBA preferred

If the CEO sets the vision, the COO makes sure it happens. The COO is responsible for executing the day-to-day operations of a company to reach the long-term vision. The COO sets company-wide goals, measures how teams reach those goals, and marshals resources needed to achieve goals as set out by the CEO. 

The COO, therefore, functions as a second-in-command to the CEO, working to ensure that the vision set out by the CEO comes to fruition. As such, there is a great deal of day-to-day tasks and responsibilities that fall on the COO’s plate. Executing this role effectively often requires long hours, weekend work, and emergency shifts. Additionally, the COO bears a lot of responsibility when targets are not reached. It’s a high-stress, high-visibility position.

Head of Sales

Median salary: $156,250

Degree required: Bachelor’s, MBA preferred

If sales targets make a job stressful, then the head of sales takes the cake for most stressful position. 

The head of sales leads the entire sales program at a company – driving outbound and inbound lead generation, crafting sales strategies, building pipeline, creating sales quotas and training programs for junior sales associates, building repeatable processes, and forecasting sales beyond the current quarter to give the company a framework to base growth on. 

This job is considered high stress because it is revenue generating, being responsible for the entirety of sales generation. While the head of sales may not close individual sales per se, they are responsible for building up the programs and pipelines that enable sales professionals to close deals. When they win, the head of sales wins. When sales dry up, the head of sales is often the first one shown the door. As such, there is a great deal of pressure to perform, making this one of the most high stress jobs on our list. 

Land your low stress, high paying job. 

Ultimately, you have to decide what your ideal work-life balance looks like. Importantly, what is high-stress to one job seeker is often low stress to another. One person could view sales targets as way too stressful, while another could thrive under that motivation. 

However, just finding your ideal role doesn’t guarantee you’ll even get an interview. When you apply for that least stressful high paying job, you have to make sure to get past the ATS (applicant tracking system). 

In other words, you need a killer resume to land that killer job. Especially for these high paying jobs, the competition is fierce, and you need to make sure that your technical expertise and your management experience is conveyed clearly and cleanly. 

Is your resume selling you short? 

Make sure your resume gets seen by human eyes with our free resume review. 

Get your free professional resume review now. 

Methodology

Ladders used our own, proprietary data to determine the median midpoint salary for jobs available. Then, we sorted these median salaries to surface the highest paying median midpoint salaries.

From there, we developed a list of stress components, then examined these high-paying jobs based on these criteria. The jobs we picked represent the best confluence of high pay and fewest stressful elements.

About Ladders 

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