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

What is a senior radiation therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average senior radiation therapist salary is $79,477. The most common degree is a associate degree degree with an biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a senior radiation therapist. Senior radiation therapists with a Radiation Therapy certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 1,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior Radiation TherapistUS Average

Salary

6.2

Avg. Salary $79,477

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.9

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 5.05%

Black or African American 6.13%

Hispanic or Latino 9.40%

Unknown 8.72%

White 70.04%

Gender

female 65.91%

male 34.09%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

9.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior radiation therapist

Explore senior radiation therapist education requirements

Most common senior radiation therapist degrees

Associate

45.2 %

Bachelor's

31.6 %

Certificate

16.8 %

Start to develop specific senior radiation therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	27.35%
Patient Care	10.29%
Patient Treatment	5.93%
QA	5.46%
CPR	4.85%

Complete relevant senior radiation therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior radiation therapists 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 radiation therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior radiation therapist resumes.

Research senior radiation therapist duties and responsibilities

Experience with substituting as Supervisor/Chief radiation therapist, managing schedules and appointments and billing of patients treatments.
Demonstrate working knowledge of community mental health services identify in the Medicaid guidelines and attain contractual outcomes within designate time frames.
Train in new technologies, such as, IMRT, IGRT, and CBCT.
Perform daily QA and morning checks on the machine.

Get senior radiation therapist experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a senior radiation therapist. The most common roles before becoming a senior radiation therapist include radiation therapist, staff radiation therapist team lead and radiologic technician.

Prepare your senior radiation therapist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior radiation therapist 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 radiation therapist 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 radiation therapist resume templates

Build a professional senior radiation therapist 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 radiation therapist resume.