How To Become A Design Supervisor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a design supervisor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Generally, Design Supervisors are responsible for supervising and managing design staff alongside evaluating their products. They are in charge of organizing work and assigning different priority levels to scheduled work activities. In addition to that, they meet and coordinate with other agencies to learn what they require from the graphic design team and so that the graphic design team better recognizes the customer's requirements.

In this distinct role, you set and review graphic design standards, review budgets, invoices, resources, and contractors to meet goals. Additionally, you have to check accounts, invoices, resources, and contractors to meet goals. Besides this, you must communicate across departments to set goals, report on initiatives, and integrate strategies.

Although the academic qualification is not vitally important, at least an associate's degree with related coursework in graphic design is generally needed for this role. Further, you must possess the interacting and leading skills and experience in designing. You can earn up to an average salary of $57,580 as a Design Supervisor.

ScoreDesign SupervisorUS Average

Salary

6.1

Avg. Salary $78,150

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 10.37%

Black or African American 3.37%

Hispanic or Latino 9.16%

Unknown 4.59%

White 72.41%

Gender

female 22.97%

male 77.03%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a design supervisor

Explore design supervisor education requirements

Most common design supervisor degrees

Bachelor's

52.4 %

Associate

31.7 %

Master's

6.6 %

Start to develop specific design supervisor skills

Skills	Percentages
Autocad	14.74%
Engineering Drawings	8.25%
Engineering Design	6.78%
Graphic Design	6.64%
Design Software	5.59%

Complete relevant design supervisor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New design supervisors 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 design supervisor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real design supervisor resumes.

Research design supervisor duties and responsibilities

Manage Chrysler's CMHE standards.
Engineer, manage and implement configuration and installation of complex Ethernet network backbones.
Train new employees in the use of SolidWorks and SourceSafe.
Design military vehicle parts and assemblies using Unigraphics NX7 and Teamcenter.

Prepare your design supervisor resume

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

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