What Does a Control Center Operator Do

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a control center operator, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.2% of control center operators included emergency situations, while 6.5% of resumes included logistics, and 5.5% of resumes included incident reports. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

Learn more about what a Control Center Operator does

How To Become a Control Center Operator

If you're interested in becoming a control center operator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 40.9% of control center operators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.5% of control center operators have master's degrees. Even though some control center operators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Control Center Operator Career Paths

Average Salary for a Control Center Operator

Control Center Operators in America make an average salary of $51,597 per year or $25 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $108,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.
Average Control Center Operator Salary
$51,597 Yearly
$24.81 hourly

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Roles and Types of Control Center Operator

The role of a control center operator includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general control center operator responsibilities:

  • Direct outage dispatching for feeder level outages
  • Must provide above excellent customer service when dealing with clients, customers, co workers, etc. Provide information
  • Functions monitoring of customer’s wide variety of networks coordinate with technicians, customer & vendors to resolve issues in timely manner to maximize system up time. Accurately process system(s) alarms

There are several types of control center operator, including:

Sensor Operator

Role:

Sensor operators are responsible for monitoring the surveillance and weapon systems of unmanned aircraft in a remote setting, ensuring each mission is successful. They detect the correct targets using various forms of radar and video while employing airborne sensors in manual or computer-assisted modes to actively or passively complete their missions. They also acquire, track, and monitor airborne, maritime, and ground objects.

Sensor operators earn an average salary of $56,000 annually or $27 per hour. Their duties include conducting reconnaissance and surveillance of potential targets and areas of interest. They discriminate between valid and invalid targets using radar, low-light, infrared video imagery, and other tracking systems. They also assist with flight operations, debriefing, and planning missions.

In terms of academic qualifications, sensor operators hold a bachelor's degree in a similar role from an accredited university. Although, it is possible to gain employment in entry-level positions with a high school diploma or its equivalent. They are expected to have some experience as sensor operators or in a related field.
  • Average Salary: $51,597
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Control Center Operator Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active control center operator jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where control center operators earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Control Center Operator Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,542$58,384
2Texas2,535$53,587
3Massachusetts2,094$58,339
4Pennsylvania1,791$60,684
5Florida1,629$36,127
6Illinois1,602$48,097
7New Jersey1,574$60,477
8Virginia1,366$62,348
9Ohio1,352$43,611
10Georgia1,316$36,276
11North Carolina1,143$42,903
12Michigan1,071$48,040
13New York1,011$69,729
14Minnesota990$50,583
15Missouri923$44,521
16Indiana902$39,640
17Maryland788$49,336
18Tennessee767$37,728
19Kentucky728$40,984
20Arizona695$49,879
21Alabama639$38,023
22Kansas623$40,359
23South Carolina595$36,394
24Wisconsin546$47,029
25Nebraska508$36,723
26Oklahoma487$35,458
27Colorado474$38,804
28Washington438$32,864
29Mississippi366$39,063
30Utah310$36,131
31New Mexico304$53,806
32Montana303$31,666
33Oregon297$41,271
34Rhode Island260$57,461
35Idaho254$31,847
36Connecticut248$63,967
37Nevada246$46,170
38New Hampshire209$59,757
39Louisiana207$49,736
40Arkansas193$38,349
41Hawaii173$37,938
42Alaska172$64,595
43Iowa153$44,000
44Wyoming142$40,938
45Delaware136$56,855
46Vermont49$53,050
47West Virginia45$52,495
48Maine38$44,350
49North Dakota31$44,871
50South Dakota29$33,833

Control Center Operator Education

Control Center Operator Majors

20.4 %

Control Center Operator Degrees

Bachelors

40.9 %

Associate

32.2 %

High School Diploma

15.0 %

Top Skills For a Control Center Operator

Choose From 10+ Customizable Control Center Operator Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Control Center Operator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Control Center Operator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Control Center Operator Resume

Control Center Operator Demographics

Control Center Operator Gender Distribution

Male
Male
73%
Female
Female
27%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among control center operators, 27.1% of them are women, while 72.9% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among control center operators is White, which makes up 50.7% of all control center operators.

  • The most common foreign language among control center operators is Spanish at 65.2%.

Online Courses For Control Center Operator That You May Like

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1. Security Operations

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Welcome to course 5 of 5 of this Specialization, Security Operations. This course focuses our attention on the day-to-day, moment-by-moment active use of the security controls and risk mitigation strategies that an organization has in place. We will explore ways to secure the data and the systems they reside on, and how to encourage secure practices among people who interact with the data and systems during their daily duties. After completing this course, the participant will be able to:...

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2. In the Trenches: Security Operations Center

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Cyber-attacks, breaches, and incidents continue to grow. The sophistication and complexity of these attacks continue to evolve. More than ever organizations need to plan, prepare, and defend against a potential cyber incident. Security Operation Centers (SOCs) act as an organization's front-line defense against cyber incidents. SOC analyst accomplishes this by monitoring and responding to network and host anomalies, performing an in-depth analysis of suspicious events, and when necessary,...

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3. Access Controls

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Welcome to Access Controls! The Access Controls Course provides information pertaining to specify what users are permitted to do, the resources they are allowed to access, and what operations they are able to perform on a system. Access Controls help managers limit and monitor systems use at a user level or group membership. You will understand the different access control systems and how they should be implemented to protect the system and data using the different levels of confidentiality,...

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Best States For a Control Center Operator

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a control center operator. The best states for people in this position are New York, Alaska, Connecticut, and Virginia. Control center operators make the most in New York with an average salary of $69,729. Whereas in Alaska and Connecticut, they would average $64,595 and $63,967, respectively. While control center operators would only make an average of $62,348 in Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Alaska

Total Control Center Operator Jobs: 172
Highest 10% Earn:
$129,000
Location Quotient:
1.66

2. Pennsylvania

Total Control Center Operator Jobs: 1,791
Highest 10% Earn:
$126,000
Location Quotient:
1.24

3. Rhode Island

Total Control Center Operator Jobs: 260
Highest 10% Earn:
$121,000
Location Quotient:
1.72
Full List Of Best States For Control Center Operators

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Top Control Center Operator Employers

Most Common Employers For Control Center Operator

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Florida Power & Light$112,972$54.316
2Northwestern Mutual$97,340$46.805
3Inter-Con Security Systems$91,767$44.124
4U.S. Bank$88,068$42.349
5MITRE$83,465$40.137
6Universal Protection Service$77,963$37.486
7Northrop Grumman$75,935$36.514
8ManTech$71,365$34.317
9SpaceX$66,204$31.834
10Aerospace Testing Alliance$57,420$27.615