How To Become An Optical Manufacturing Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is an optical manufacturing technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an optical manufacturing technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.89 an hour? That's $33,056 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 2,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreOptical Manufacturing TechnicianUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,056

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.3

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.67%

Asian 8.17%

Black or African American 6.86%

Hispanic or Latino 11.74%

Unknown 4.64%

White 67.94%

Gender

female 26.09%

male 73.91%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

6.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.5

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an optical manufacturing technician

Explore optical manufacturing technician education requirements

Most common optical manufacturing technician degrees

Bachelor's

43.5 %

Associate

26.1 %

High School Diploma

17.4 %

Start to develop specific optical manufacturing technician skills

Skills	Percentages
CNC	42.02%
Optical Components	21.55%
Prism	13.74%
Interferometers	9.69%
Test Equipment	6.32%

Complete relevant optical manufacturing technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New optical manufacturing 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 an optical manufacturing technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real optical manufacturing technician resumes.

Research optical manufacturing technician duties and responsibilities

Maintain coating quality using adhesion testing and spectrophotometers, and manage coating hues and reflectance adjustments.
Perform math calculations require for batch processing such as determining loss amounts, process yields and accountability and verifying inventory reconciliations.
Utilize schematics to troubleshoot tank electronics.

Prepare your optical manufacturing technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your optical manufacturing 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 an optical manufacturing 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 optical manufacturing technician resume templates

Build a professional optical manufacturing technician 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 optical manufacturing technician resume.