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

What is a senior supervisor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A senior supervisor supervises the activities of the staff and ensures that they meet sales and production targets. He/She plans the workflow and ensures that employees understand their delegated tasks. He/She tracks employees' productivity and provides useful feedback. Also, he/she sets performance goals and deadlines in line with the company's plans and targets. Besides that, he/she ensures compliance with legal and company policies and procedures, undertaking necessary actions as needed. Furthermore, he/she maintains timekeeping and personnel records and attends to complaints, and resolves issues.

Most senior supervisors have a bachelor's degree in a business-related field with relevant manufacturing experience. Large corporations prefer applicants with a master's degree. You must be conversant with the company policies and legal policies of the industry. You must also possess interpersonal, leadership, organization, and communication skills. Also, you must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Senior supervisors make an average salary of $62,604 per annum. This varies from $36,000 to $109,000.

ScoreSenior SupervisorUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $61,146

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.64%

Asian 5.25%

Black or African American 9.74%

Hispanic or Latino 18.86%

Unknown 4.73%

White 60.78%

Gender

female 34.20%

male 65.80%

Age - 48

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 - 48

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior supervisor

Explore senior supervisor education requirements

Most common senior supervisor degrees

Bachelor's

57.4 %

Associate

17.0 %

High School Diploma

9.4 %

Start to develop specific senior supervisor skills

Skills	Percentages
Rehabilitation	11.68%
Safety Procedures	7.54%
Continuous Improvement	6.11%
OSHA	4.35%
SR	4.03%

Complete relevant senior supervisor training and internships

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

Research senior supervisor duties and responsibilities

Analyze the KPIs and provide recommendation in order to attain or maintain the accepted values of KPIs.
Supervise and manage a team of 33 personnel including DOD contractors and linguist training over 3,000 soldiers on a daily basis.
Manage employment-related taxation issues including assisting clients with their annual obligations.
Manage timeliness, accuracy, and maintenance of publish content via Microsoft SharePoint.

Get senior supervisor experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior supervisor. The most common roles before becoming a senior supervisor include supervisor, customer service representative team lead and team leader.

Prepare your senior supervisor resume

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

Build a professional senior supervisor 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 supervisor resume.

Apply for senior supervisor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior supervisor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do senior supervisors rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Senior supervisor reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2019

Pros

The team that I lead, it was a HPWS team where everyone had a role and executed it. I facilitated the team by removing any barriers and providing the tools necessary to make sure that the process went smoothly on a daily basis.

Cons

The 6/7 day work weeks and the constant jumping between 2nd and 3rd shifts.