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

What is a senior material specialist 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 material specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $34.97 an hour? That's $72,735 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 28% and produce 54,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior Material SpecialistUS Average

Salary

5.7

Avg. Salary $72,735

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.78%

Asian 7.29%

Black or African American 9.02%

Hispanic or Latino 12.38%

Unknown 4.40%

White 66.14%

Gender

female 26.67%

male 73.33%

Age - 49

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 - 49

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior material specialist

Explore senior material specialist education requirements

Most common senior material specialist degrees

Bachelor's

62.3 %

Associate

17.2 %

High School Diploma

9.3 %

Start to develop specific senior material specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Inventory Control	14.22%
BOM	14.10%
ERP	10.68%
Purchase Orders	10.31%
MRP	10.08%

Complete relevant senior material specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior material specialists 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 material specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior material specialist resumes.

Research senior material specialist duties and responsibilities

Lead project to establish a Kanban system for hardware to a key station to reduce cycle time and increase efficiency.
Work with MRP and suppliers to endure jobsite delivery in Indonesia within the project schedule.
Support the management and planning of Maximo asset /inventory requirements to balance investment and demand accounting for operation conditions.
Provide production and delivery KPI reporting matrix for operations and management personnel both internal and externally.

Get senior material specialist experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior material specialist. The most common roles before becoming a senior material specialist include buyer, materials specialist team lead and senior buyer.

Prepare your senior material specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior material specialist 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 material specialist 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 material specialist resume templates

Build a professional senior material specialist 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 material specialist resume.