What does a senior operator do?
Senior Operators are responsible for managing the operations and maintenance of all plants and facilities. Their duties include troubleshooting issues using root-cause analysis, carrying out testing and quality checks, assisting the lead operator in coordinating maintenance activities as well as ensuring plant and facilities condition and performance adhere to mandatory legal regulations. Senior Operators are responsible for writing daily updates for the lead operator and help human resources in conducting staff skills training.
Senior operator responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior operator resumes:
- Measure and inspect parts with calipers, scale, MRP, leads, micrometers and taper.
- Manage the master calendar and schedule resources such as communication equipment, weapons, transportation and ammunition forecast and delivery.
- Operate QC testing equipment such as calipers and micrometers.
- Experience with MVS and JES2 command sets, the weekly shutdown and initial power load of production systems.
- Assist in migration to the LAN environment, perform quality control and JCL setup and interface with user and vendor communities.
- Train with TSO, JES2, and UCC7.
- Use of various tools such as micrometers and grinders.
- Assist in the writing of several work instructions per ISO guidelines.
- Prepare detainees to be used as U.S. assets ISO operations against opposing sects/insurgencies.
- Operate machines, including cutters, presses, drills, jigs and heating machines.
- Work with DCS operations controlling the different processes involve in a chemical refinery plant.
- Use of SCADA to monitor system pressure, chlorine residual, flows, and facility operations.
- Inspect, maintain and wear proper PPE for clean room environment to maintain integrity of the product.
- Perform random recipe audits on all team members to ensure compliance with all GMP and recipe guidelines.
- Transport and load raw materials onto machines, operating fork-lifts, electric pallet-jacks and industrial chain hoists.
Senior operator skills and personality traits
We calculated that 17% of Senior Operators are proficient in Safety Procedures, Math, and PowerPoint. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Coordination, and Mechanical skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Operators that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Safety Procedures, 17%
Participated in and Supervised Tailgate Meetings and ensured all employees adhere to company policies and safety procedures.
- Math, 8%
Present strong mathematical knowledge and various math applications.
- PowerPoint, 7%
Prepared documents in different electronic formats (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF)
- Windows, 5%
Leveraged extensive experience in multiple operating environment including mainframe connectivity and security, Windows NT/2000 workstation and server and UNIX.
- Logistics, 5%
Field Coordinator I Facility Supervisor/Operate equipment as needed, Logistics coordinator for field deliveries and Procurement specialist
- CDL, 5%
Obtained Blaster's Permit, ATF and FBI Background clearance, and CDL Class B.
"safety procedures," "math," and "powerpoint" are among the most common skills that senior operators use at work. You can find even more senior operator responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a senior operator to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "material moving machine operators signal and direct workers to load and unload material." Senior operators often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "use of client access for pc communications to (12) as/400's (7) local (5) remote. "
Coordination. Many senior operator duties rely on coordination. "material moving machine operators must have steady hands and feet to guide and control heavy machinery precisely," so a senior operator will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior operator responsibilities rely on coordination: "project management project scheduling, coordination, completion & invoicing contract administration customer survey follow up permits compliance certification management construction meetings"
Mechanical skills. senior operators are also known for mechanical skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to senior operator responsibilities, because "material moving machine operators make minor adjustments to their machines and perform basic maintenance on them." A senior operator resume example shows how mechanical skills is used in the workplace: "perform routine maintenance or make minor repairs to mechanical, electrical, or electronic equipment in biomass plants. "
Visual ability. A big part of what senior operators do relies on "visual ability." You can see how essential it is to senior operator responsibilities because "material moving machine operators must be able to see clearly where they are driving or what they are moving." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical senior operator tasks: "performed all shipping/receiving/visual duties trained and managed the store operations team executed all inventory control procedures"
The three companies that hire the most senior operators are:
- Ernst & Young46 senior operators jobs
- Deloitte16 senior operators jobs
- Amazon10 senior operators jobs
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Compare different senior operators
Senior operator vs. Computer processing scheduler
A Lead Operator or an Industrial Machinery Mechanic is responsible for creating, installing, and repairing different types of machinery. This person does the adjustment and maintenance of machines as well as the industrial production and distribution of types of equipment and other systems. They also identify the causes of the problem and determines the valued solutions. Other duties include maintaining the routine monitoring of equipment to ensure quality standards and examines the production equipment to evaluate the performance and if there are changes.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior operator responsibilities require skills like "safety procedures," "math," "powerpoint," and "windows." Meanwhile a typical computer processing scheduler has skills in areas such as "production schedules," "customer service," "sql," and "scheduling appointments." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Computer processing schedulers tend to reach similar levels of education than senior operators. In fact, computer processing schedulers are 2.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 2.0% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Senior operator vs. Computer tape librarian
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior operator resumes. While senior operator responsibilities can utilize skills like "safety procedures," "math," "powerpoint," and "logistics," computer tape librarians use skills like "cad," "pcb," "mentor graphics," and "mainframe computers."
Computer tape librarians earn similar levels of education than senior operators in general. They're 1.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 2.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior operator vs. Lead operator/machine operator
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from senior operator resumes include skills like "math," "powerpoint," "windows," and "logistics," whereas a lead operator/machine operator is more likely to list skills in "machine operators," "cnc," "product quality," and "production process. "
When it comes to education, lead operator/machine operators tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior operators. In fact, they're 2.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior operator vs. Computer operations analyst
Types of senior operator
Updated January 8, 2025
