How To Become A Lead System Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lead system technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Mark Whalen P.E.

A lead system technician can work in a variety of different fields. Your major duty includes managing all electronic systems, hardware, and software installations as well as network configurations and modifications. Your job requires you to oversee the maintenance of all systems, which includes their upgrade, security, evaluation, and troubleshooting.

You will also be expected to train and mentor team members on the usage and maintenance of some systems and may also be required to coordinate cabling, networking, and connectivity. Team members should also be trained to bring about effective solutions when utilizing web servers and SQL databases. The top skills needed for any good lead system technician are troubleshooting, Linux, and use of hand tools.

Apart from these skills, you should be able to communicate properly. You must also possess analytical and multitasking skills. The mean annual salary for this position is about $104,000. A bachelor's degree is the minimum educational requirement for this role.

What general advice would you give to a lead system technician?

Mark Whalen P.E.

Department Chair, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

A system engineer designs, develops, and manages complex technical systems across a large variety of industries. This can include defining solutions to system-level problems, plus allocating requirements, technologies and team member tasking at a project level, as well as communicating complex ideas and systems to key stakeholders.

An entry-level system engineer will typically apply advanced mathematical techniques to solve system-level technical problems, as well as installing, testing, and troubleshooting complex operating systems

ScoreLead System TechnicianUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $114,870

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 10.77%

Black or African American 8.75%

Hispanic or Latino 12.44%

Unknown 5.07%

White 62.64%

Gender

female 9.38%

male 90.63%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lead system technician

Explore lead system technician education requirements

Most common lead system technician degrees

Bachelor's

48.9 %

Associate

28.4 %

Master's

11.3 %

Start to develop specific lead system technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Java	12.86%
Troubleshoot	12.29%
Hand Tools	10.38%
Linux	5.54%
Technical Support	4.76%

Complete relevant lead system technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lead system technicians 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 lead system technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lead system technician resumes.

Research lead system technician duties and responsibilities

Lead the development of LTE RF optimization projects for Verizon, and Vodafone.
Recommend, engineer and manage office systems, including centralize productivity and communication systems such as e-mail and centralize desktop environments.
Create project plans for PC and software programs upgrades.
Assist in the development of training materials for the Linux cluster solutions product line.

Get lead system technician experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a lead system technician. The most common roles before becoming a lead system technician include system technician, lead technician team lead and systems administrator.

Prepare your lead system technician resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable lead system technician resume templates

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