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

What is a chief of planning 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 of planning. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.25 an hour? That's $121,168 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreChief Of PlanningUS Average

Salary

8.2

Avg. Salary $121,168

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 7.68%

Black or African American 3.77%

Hispanic or Latino 7.80%

Unknown 3.89%

White 76.22%

Gender

female 13.43%

male 86.57%

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 of planning

Explore chief of planning education requirements

Most common chief of planning degrees

Bachelor's

59.6 %

Master's

27.5 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific chief of planning skills

Skills	Percentages
Policy Development	13.74%
Logistics Support	8.87%
Combat	8.08%
Strategic Plan	7.12%
Emergency Operations	6.61%

Research chief of planning 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.
Represent HQ AFSOC and USCINCSOC at joint/combine planning conferences.
Participate and brief executive-level topics to senior military and DoD leadership.
Conduct inspections at geographically separate units to ensure compliance with DoD nuclear directives.

Get chief of planning experience

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

Prepare your chief of planning resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chief of planning 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 of planning 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 of planning resume templates

Build a professional chief of planning 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 of planning resume.