New data from Ladders challenges the belief that six-figure salaries demand crushing stress and identifies ten high-paying jobs offering substantial compensation without intense pressure.gettyMany professionals want a high salary. Understandably, few are willing to trade their health, relationships and peace of mind for a bigger paycheck. Earning six figures requires relentless pressure, constant availability and a willingness to accept stress as part of the deal. New data from Ladders, the career platform for professionals earning $100,000 or more, challenges that belief.Six-Figure Jobs That Pay Well Without The Crushing StressThe report identifies 10 jobs that offer six-figure compensation without the intense pressure linked to executive leadership, investment banking or sales. At the top of the list is Director of Scientific Affairs, with an average salary of $219,500. The role combines high-impact work with predictable hours and less exposure to sales quotas, revenue targets and after-hours emergencies.Other positions on the list include actuary, HR Business Partner, Senior UX Researcher, Transportation Planner, Director of Compensation, Statistician, Learning and Development Analyst, Director of Learning and Development and Director of Market Research and Insights. Salaries range from $103,000 for statisticians to $219,500 for Directors of Scientific Affairs.The findings suggest that high pay and low stress are not mutually exclusive. What matters is not simply the difficulty of the work, but the way the role is structured.Why Some Six-Figure Jobs Are Less Stressful“There’s a myth that if you want to break into the six-figure pay scale, you have to trade your evenings and your blood pressure for it,” says Marc Cenedella, founder of Ladders. “This list says otherwise.”According to Cenedella, these jobs are not low stress because they are easy. They are less stressful because the work is technical, process-driven and insulated from other people’s emergencies.Actuaries, HR Business Partners, and Senior UX Researchers work in very different fields, but their positions share similar structural qualities. Their success often depends on analysis, judgment, research and clearly defined processes rather than aggressive sales goals or constant crisis management.A demanding job can still feel manageable when priorities are stable, expectations are clear and employees are not required to respond immediately whenever something goes wrong. By contrast, even a prestigious role can become exhausting when priorities change daily or when one executive’s emergency becomes everyone else’s emergency.Cenedella describes the common thread as “deep, technical work paced by data and process.” These roles allow professionals to focus on long-term outcomes instead of chasing weekly targets or reacting to unpredictable fires.The 10 Least Stressful Six-Figure JobsThe Ladders report ranks Learning and Development Analyst at $145,000, Actuary at $155,000, HR Business Partner at $175,500, Director of Scientific Affairs at $219,500, and Senior UX Researcher at $155,000.The remaining positions include Director of Learning and Development at $149,000, Director of Market Research and Insights at $155,000, Transportation Planner at $171,000, Director of Compensation at $165,000 and Statistician at $103,000.Most require at least a bachelor’s degree. Some—including actuary—require professional certifications. A Ph.D. may be preferred for a Director of Scientific Affairs, while a master’s degree may help candidates for Director of Compensation.For comparison, the report identifies Managing Director in Investment Banking as one of the most stressful positions, with compensation of $255,000. Other highly stressful jobs include CEO at $200,000, CFO at $175,000, COO at $175,000, and Head of Sales at $156,250.These roles often carry direct and potentially stressful responsibility for revenue, company performance, investor expectations, layoffs, staffing decisions and organizational crises. The higher salary may reflect not only expertise and authority, but also the emotional and operational burden of being accountable when something goes wrong.Which Calm Jobs Could Become More StressfulA low-stress job today may not remain that way as artificial intelligence transforms professional work. Some of the calmest roles on the list are data-driven and repeatable, which may also make them more vulnerable to automation.Cenedella believes actuaries deserve attention. Actuarial work relies heavily on statistical modeling, structured data and pattern recognition. Those are areas where AI can complete much of the analytical process.“Calm today doesn’t mean calm in five years,” he points out. If AI performs much of the initial modeling, actuaries may face pressure to manage more cases, make faster decisions, or prove the value of their human judgment.He adds that statisticians and market research professionals could encounter similar changes. AI may not eliminate these jobs, but it could increase productivity expectations and reduce the time employers allow for analysis.By contrast, Director of Scientific Affairs and HR Business Partner may remain more resilient because both require trust, judgment, and communication in complex human settings. Scientific affairs leaders often work within regulated environments, while HR Business Partners navigate conflict, organizational culture, employee concerns, and sensitive decisions.Senior UX Researcher represents a middle ground, according to Cenedella. AI can analyze feedback and identify behavioral patterns, but it may not know which question to ask, how to build trust with a participant or how to interpret hesitation, emotion and context.A job may be calm because it is repeatable or because it depends on human judgment. Roles in the first category may face more disruption, while positions built around trust and ambiguity may remain both valuable and relatively stable.What Job Seekers Often Screen For IncorrectlyIn an ideal world, you get paid well, have a sustainable work-life balance and are able to prioritize your health and your family’s. But Cenedella argues that if you screen for the vanity signals like job title, salary number or health/wellness benefits, you don't realize how none of that tells you anything about whether you'll be stressed to the nines six months in.He notes that those factors matter, but they don’t always reveal whether a job will become overwhelming. A more useful question is how quickly someone else’s emergency can become yours. Roles tied to quarterly quotas, revenue targets, client emergencies, or executive demands contain built-in stress. So do jobs where managers cannot explain priorities clearly or where goals change every week.Cenedella recommends asking specific questions during interviews. One is: “Walk me through what happens when something goes wrong at 6 p.m. on a Friday. Am I expected to take the call?” Another is: “How often do your team’s priorities change because someone above you changes direction?”The answers may reveal more than a company’s wellness benefits or vacation policy. If problems can usually wait until Monday, the role may offer genuine boundaries. If priorities constantly shift based on executive preference, the job may become stressful regardless of salary.Cenedella advises that job seekers also ask how performance is measured, how often deadlines change, who handles emergencies and why the position is open.Salary and title are important outputs, but pacing, exposure, autonomy and clarity are the inputs that ultimately shape daily life. The best six-figure job is not simply the one with the largest paycheck. It’s the one that compensates employees well without requiring them to sacrifice their health to earn it.