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

What is a senior instructor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A senior instructor teaches assigned courses in accordance with the course description and objectives. They plan, organize, assess, and engage students to achieve academic excellence in the specified course.

Their tasks primarily lie with the design and development of a curriculum that will hone and improve the students' knowledge and skills. They mentor the students and encourage them to participate in college activities that will give them enrichment experiences relating to the course or discipline.

The senior instructor handles and completes administrative and academic responsibilities related to teaching. This includes the computation and recording of students' grades or marks based on their attendance, class participation, exams, and other academic requirements.

It is necessary for the senior instructor to have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in education and their fields of teaching specialization.

The average income of a senior instructor is $30.48 per hour, equivalent to $63,408 per year.

ScoreSenior InstructorUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $58,892

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.5

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 6.34%

Black or African American 11.92%

Hispanic or Latino 16.24%

Unknown 6.50%

White 58.49%

Gender

female 22.61%

male 77.39%

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

Stress level

5.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior instructor

Explore senior instructor education requirements

Most common senior instructor degrees

Bachelor's

55.4 %

Associate

20.1 %

Master's

14.2 %

Start to develop specific senior instructor skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	14.08%
Curriculum Development	13.64%
ELearning	6.40%
Training Programs	6.36%
Course Content	3.98%

Complete relevant senior instructor training and internships

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

Research senior instructor duties and responsibilities

Lead and mentore over 100 mid-career and senior DoD investigators in multiple courses.
Manage accession process to prepare commission lieutenants for transfer to their gaining units.
Evaluate AIT student efforts in terms of adhering to standards of performance accomplish.
Lead a team of 55 soldiers while delivering classroom instruction on tactical radios and COMSEC equipment.

Get senior instructor experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior instructor. The most common roles before becoming a senior instructor include instructor, platoon sergeant team lead and team leader.

Prepare your senior instructor resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable senior instructor resume templates

Build a professional senior instructor 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 senior instructor resume.