How To Become A Chief Deputy: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chief deputy and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chief deputy. For example, did you know that they make an average of $61.02 an hour? That's $126,924 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreChief DeputyUS Average

Salary

8.3

Avg. Salary $126,924

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.65%

Asian 7.64%

Black or African American 3.75%

Hispanic or Latino 7.76%

Unknown 3.89%

White 76.31%

Gender

female 29.27%

male 70.73%

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

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.0

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a chief deputy

Explore chief deputy education requirements

Most common chief deputy degrees

Bachelor's

55.1 %

Master's

19.3 %

Associate

12.4 %

Start to develop specific chief deputy skills

Skills	Percentages
Oversight	13.77%
Policy Development	9.59%
Human Resources	7.57%
Financial Reports	6.02%
Technical Assistance	4.55%

Research chief deputy duties and responsibilities

Evaluate progress of program plans to determine whether overall command-wide objectives are being accomplish economically with reference to budget and manpower.
Develop and maintain relationships with DOD and other federal agencies on every forward operating base.
Maintain a fleet of 40 plus patrol cars.
Assist DISA in the hardening of the DoD unclassify network architecture.

Get chief deputy experience

Generally, it takes more than 10 years to become a chief deputy. The most common roles before becoming a chief deputy include police officer, executive officer team lead and operations officer.

Prepare your chief deputy resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chief deputy 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 chief deputy resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable chief deputy resume templates

Build a professional chief deputy 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 chief deputy resume.