How To Become A Senior GIS Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior gis 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 a senior gis technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.96 an hour? That's $45,685 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 2,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior GIS TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $45,685

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.1

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 11.99%

Black or African American 6.24%

Hispanic or Latino 8.82%

Unknown 4.70%

White 67.73%

Gender

female 26.73%

male 73.27%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

4.1

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.4

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior gis technician

Explore senior gis technician education requirements

Most common senior gis technician degrees

Bachelor's

64.4 %

Associate

16.4 %

Master's

9.6 %

Start to develop specific senior gis technician skills

Skills	Percentages
GPS	19.98%
GIS Data	18.72%
CAD	13.27%
Access Database	10.56%
Data Maintenance	7.74%

Complete relevant senior gis technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior gis 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 senior gis technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior gis technician resumes.

Research senior gis technician duties and responsibilities

Manage client relations and coordinate the project effectively between onsite and offshore.
Collect data in the field using a Trimble GPS device.
Use GPS measurements to improve the accuracy of the GIS features.
Maintain the accuracy and timeliness of existing SDE datasets as well as create and acquire new datasets.

Prepare your senior gis technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior gis technician resume.

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