How To Become A Road Grader Operator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a road grader operator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a road grader operator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.62 an hour? That's $44,968 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 22,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRoad Grader OperatorUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,968

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.9

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.88%

Asian 0.93%

Black or African American 7.02%

Hispanic or Latino 18.34%

Unknown 4.33%

White 67.49%

Gender

female 5.65%

male 94.35%

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

6.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a road grader operator

Explore road grader operator education requirements

Most common road grader operator degrees

High School Diploma

36.6 %

Bachelor's

26.8 %

Associate

22.0 %

Start to develop specific road grader operator skills

Skills	Percentages
CDL	89.58%
DOT Regulations	4.84%
Road Construction	2.84%
Trip Inspections	2.75%

Complete relevant road grader operator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New road grader operators 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 road grader operator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real road grader operator resumes.

Research road grader operator duties and responsibilities

Follow all power equipment rules and regulation including any regulatory agency policies to include OSHA.
Prepare, grade assignments and code solutions for multithreading, mutual exclusion, memory management, etc.

Prepare your road grader operator resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable road grader operator resume templates

Build a professional road grader operator 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 road grader operator resume.