Also known as operations managers, operations officers prioritize and manage company resources in order to meet the organization's goals and objectives.
They provide support to all business departments, including administration, finance, and human resources, by ensuring operational activities are executed within budget and timelines, performing budget allocation and expense management for all business operational activities, and conducting regular operational reviews and audits for preventive maintenance.
Operations officers also set operational goals, guide staff in resolving issues, and ensure resource assignment, work allocation, training development, and performance assessments are completed in a timely manner.
In addition, they conduct regular meetings with staff to discuss operational updates, ideas, and issues, ensure customer complaints are handled accurately, develop and implement plans to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency, and provide excellent customer service in order to build and maintain strong relationships with customers.
Operations officers need customer service, interpersonal, leadership, organizational, time management, and communication skills. They also need bachelor's degrees in business administration, finance, or accounting.
People in this role typically earn roughly $23.98 an hour, which translates to $49,800 a year.
Operations Officer Overview
Operations Officer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an operations officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.97 an hour? That's $51,944 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 150,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Operations Officer Do
There are certain skills that many operations officers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, leadership skills and management skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an operations officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 22.1% of operations officers included procedures, while 15.3% of resumes included customer service, and 13.3% of resumes included facility. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the operations officer job title. But what industry to start with? Most operations officers actually find jobs in the finance and technology industries.
How To Become an Operations Officer
If you're interested in becoming an operations officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 62.3% of operations officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.6% of operations officers have master's degrees. Even though most operations officers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an operations officer. When we researched the most common majors for an operations officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on operations officer resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an operations officer. In fact, many operations officer jobs require experience in a role such as platoon leader. Meanwhile, many operations officers also have previous career experience in roles such as executive officer or company commander.
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Operations Officer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an operations officer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as operations manager, progress to a title such as general manager and then eventually end up with the title vice president & general manager.
Operations Officer Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for an Operations Officer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Allied Universal Security Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer | Allied Universal Security Allied Universal Security | 05/27/2021 05/27/2021 | $27,65305/27/2021 $27,653 |
Allied Universal Security Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer-Financial Property Complex Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer-Financial Property Complex | Allied Universal Security Allied Universal Security | 05/27/2021 05/27/2021 | $42,55405/27/2021 $42,554 |
Allied Universal Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer | Allied Universal Allied Universal | 05/25/2021 05/25/2021 | $30,26205/25/2021 $30,262 |
Allied Universal Security Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer | Allied Universal Security Allied Universal Security | 05/24/2021 05/24/2021 | $33,39205/24/2021 $33,392 |
Allied Universal Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer Security Operations Center (SOC) Officer | Allied Universal Allied Universal | 05/22/2021 05/22/2021 | $33,39205/22/2021 $33,392 |
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Operations Officer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Operations Officer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Operations Officer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Operations Officer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Operations Officers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. New York University
New York, NY • Private
5. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
6. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
7. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
8. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
9. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
10. Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA • Private
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Top Skills For an Operations Officer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.1% of operations officers listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and leadership skills are important as well.
- Procedures, 22.1%
- Customer Service, 15.3%
- Facility, 13.3%
- Physical Security, 8.7%
- Clearance, 4.4%
- Other Skills, 36.2% See All Operations Officer Skills
Best States For an Operations Officer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an operations officer. The best states for people in this position are Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Texas. Operations officers make the most in Virginia with an average salary of $87,393. Whereas in Maryland and New York, they would average $83,903 and $81,464, respectively. While operations officers would only make an average of $79,947 in Texas, 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. Texas
$79,947
Avg. Salary
2. Maryland
$83,903
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
$87,393
Avg. Salary
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