How To Become A Navigator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a navigator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Navigators are responsible for giving directions to aircraft, vehicles, or ships. Your other responsibilities as a navigator include maintaining communication in any of your transport mediums, mapping out for journeys, and maintaining nautical publications and charts. You will also help avoid hazards during travel, inform the captain if any is noticed, inform the captain of the estimated time for route to the destination, and maintain all navigation instruments and meteorological devices. Plus, you are also in charge of managing all maps, charts, and computer programs to give accurate information to guide the journey.

As a navigator, map reading is the most important skill needed. Other skills are communication skills, decision-making skills, analytical skills, interpretation skills, and writing skills. To become a navigator, you can either learn by joining military training or through a private sector. However, most navigators learn through military training. You will earn an average of $39,642 per year.

ScoreNavigatorUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,719

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.38%

Asian 5.50%

Black or African American 6.60%

Hispanic or Latino 15.82%

Unknown 4.03%

White 67.66%

Gender

female 61.32%

male 38.68%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Key steps to become a navigator

Explore navigator education requirements

Most common navigator degrees

Bachelor's

56.7 %

Associate

17.5 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific navigator skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	18.71%
Social Work	12.80%
Customer Service	8.76%
Patient Care	8.33%
Rehabilitation	4.72%

Research navigator duties and responsibilities

Utilize EMR data to identify patients with low back pain and determine patient eligibility.
Provide tours and information to families considering rehabilitation at PAM.
Provide assessment, counseling and case management to patients receiving abnormal breast imaging and malignant biopsy results.
Advise patients on appropriate protocols for maintaining good health habits and assist patients in receiving update medication adherence.

Prepare your navigator resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable navigator resume templates

Build a professional navigator 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 navigator resume.