How To Become A Building Official: What It Is and Career Path

What is a building official and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There are a lot of regulations that come with building a new building or renovating an old one. These regulations don't exist just to give headaches to construction companies, but to make sure that buildings are constructed with safety in mind and won't collapse on the people who live in them. The person in charge of making sure that building regulations get followed is the building official.

A building official usually doesn't spend all day at their desk. Instead, they visit construction sites and buildings in order to make sure that they are following all regulations. At the office, they review permit applications and manage a whole staff of inspectors and plans examiners.

In order to do their job, building officials need to know all the ins and outs of construction safety and local regulations. Usually, they only reach this position after years of work in building permitting, for example as an inspector or examiner.

ScoreBuilding OfficialUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $46,398

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.89%

Asian 3.36%

Black or African American 8.07%

Hispanic or Latino 12.79%

Unknown 5.74%

White 69.16%

Gender

female 9.80%

male 90.20%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a building official

Explore building official education requirements

Most common building official degrees

Bachelor's

50.8 %

Associate

20.3 %

High School Diploma

15.3 %

Start to develop specific building official skills

Skills	Percentages
Community Development	17.94%
Code Compliance	16.33%
Plumbing	15.67%
Public Works	6.45%
Code Enforcement	6.00%

Complete relevant building official training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New building officials learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a building official based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real building official resumes.

Research building official duties and responsibilities

Lead site excavations, form structuring, and supervise concrete pours.
Modernize department by directing adoption and implementation of current editions of building, electric, fire, plumbing and mechanical codes.
Participate in networking and collaboration with other regional CBA providers.
Conduct investigation inspection on HUD construct manufactured homes.

Prepare your building official resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your building official resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a building official resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable building official resume templates

Build a professional building official resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your building official resume.