What is a Senior Support Specialist?

Senior support specialists are expected to manage effectively the resolution of support issues that are reported efficiently. They must act as a technical authority, providing expertise to both team members and clients.

If applicants are interested in pursuing a career as a senior support specialist, one of the primary things to evaluate is how much education they need. It is known that most of the old support specialists have attained a bachelor's degree or master's degree in their respective fields. The employer might prefer technical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills.

The average senior support specialist makes $86,878 per year, which is valued at $41.77 per hour. The range around that average can vary between $61,000 and $122,000, meaning senior support specialists have the chance to earn more once they cross entry-level roles.

What Does a Senior Support Specialist Do

There are certain skills that many senior support specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, listening skills and problem-solving skills.

Learn more about what a Senior Support Specialist does

How To Become a Senior Support Specialist

If you're interested in becoming a senior support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 54.8% of senior support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.9% of senior support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most senior support specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Senior Support Specialist
Top Senior Support Specialist Jobs Near You

Senior Support Specialist Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of team leader you might progress to a role such as supervisor eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title information technology manager.

Senior Support Specialist

Top Careers Before Senior Support Specialist

Customer Service Representative(209,515 Jobs)
12.8 %
Support Specialist(125,740 Jobs)
10.9 %
Technical Support Specialist(157,425 Jobs)
10.2 %

Top Careers After Senior Support Specialist

Systems Administrator(134,500 Jobs)
12.6 %
Technical Support Specialist(157,425 Jobs)
9.2 %
Customer Service Representative(209,515 Jobs)
8.8 %

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Average Salary for a Senior Support Specialist

Senior Support Specialists in America make an average salary of $106,515 per year or $51 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $159,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $71,000 per year.
Average Senior Support Specialist Salary
$106,515 Yearly
$51.21 hourly
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What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Senior Support Specialist

The role of a senior support specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general senior support specialist responsibilities:

  • Researches, evaluates, installs, configures, upgrades, and troubleshoots all it hardware, peripherals,
  • Provide technical support by communicating via phone, email
  • The sr. support representative is a transactional expert

There are several types of senior support specialist, including:

Support Lead

Role:

Support leads are in charge of supervising a customer support team. They do customer support to resolve complaints, answer questions, and develop programs for improving team performance and driving organizational goals. Additional responsibilities of a support lead include coordinating with a customer service team, providing direct customer support, reviewing complaints, and evaluating team members.

A support lead may assume other responsibilities of a team leader, like coordinating meetings and creating agendas. They're also involved in hiring employees and developing a training curriculum.

This position doesn't have any formal education requirements. However, most employers expect applicants to have a high school diploma or GED, at least. Some even insist on a higher degree in communications or a related field. Critical skills for successful support leads include leadership, organization, conflict resolution, and problem-solving.
  • Average Salary: $86,816
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Systems Support Engineer

Role:

For individuals who have a knack for electronics, and who don't necessarily want a nine-to-five desk job might consider a career as a cable splicer. A cable splicer typically works for a utility company or a telecommunications company to install, splice, test, and repair the high-voltage cables and wires in the field. In this day and age, cell phones, televisions, networks, and computers are all powered by electricity, and almost all are connected to the internet in some way. As a result, cable splicers provide a valuable service to keep our society up and running.

A cable splicer spends most of the time out in the field, either repairing cables on top of utility poles, inside buildings, or underground, and is responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing power lines and cables. Cable splicers must be properly trained to handle live electrical wires and equipment and follow company safety protocols. This is especially critical when handling live electrical wires and cables that have been knocked down due to weather, or fixing broken connections, and neutralizing live wires.

Some cable splicers may have a background in electrical engineering, or may have experience working as an electrician; however, most companies will train staff in how to safely handle cable and electrical wires. Working as a cable splicer requires attention to detail, and good computer and record-keeping skills. Depending on the industry, cable splicers can make between $30,000 to over $60,000 per year, and job growth is predicted to decrease slightly by 3% by 2029.
  • Average Salary: $82,561
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Senior Support Specialist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active senior support specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where senior support specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Senior Support Specialist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California5,066$113,934
2Illinois2,285$85,321
3Texas2,149$106,040
4Georgia1,804$85,620
5Florida1,509$86,838
6Michigan1,436$92,029
7New York1,349$105,058
8Washington1,323$69,798
9Virginia1,302$98,139
10Pennsylvania1,178$96,628
11Missouri1,047$72,521
12Massachusetts1,034$104,686
13North Carolina959$107,373
14Maryland873$111,649
15Ohio815$78,127
16Minnesota739$75,422
17Arizona728$84,703
18New Jersey721$117,469
19South Carolina711$108,556
20Colorado659$54,916
21Indiana630$83,607
22Kentucky620$100,516
23Kansas581$59,387
24Alabama562$79,929
25Oregon554$70,017
26Tennessee543$71,540
27Wisconsin537$68,706
28Nebraska510$61,044
29Oklahoma493$65,223
30Utah482$57,998
31Louisiana469$112,509
32Arkansas460$70,875
33Nevada388$95,972
34Iowa374$81,457
35New Mexico346$105,632
36Mississippi340$75,815
37Connecticut250$114,023
38South Dakota224$56,871
39Idaho207$54,844
40Maine186$74,752
41New Hampshire178$97,974
42Montana147$56,627
43Hawaii141$67,299
44Rhode Island128$95,173
45Delaware127$100,631
46North Dakota120$53,957
47West Virginia111$81,968
48Vermont106$87,213
49Alaska99$34,308
50Wyoming75$55,949

Senior Support Specialist Education

Senior Support Specialist Majors

Business
27.5 %
Computer Science
10.5 %
Computer Information Systems
7.2 %

Senior Support Specialist Degrees

Bachelors

54.8 %

Associate

24.9 %

Masters

7.9 %

Top Colleges for Senior Support Specialists

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Computer Technical Support
Computer Science
Business
Electrical Engineering
Political Science

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Finance
Business
Political Science
Computer Science
Marketing

3. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Communication
Psychology
Computer Science
Political Science

4. Maine Maritime Academy

Castine, ME • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,478

Enrollment

979

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business

5. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Communication
Accounting

6. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,309

Enrollment

9,142

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Liberal Arts
Business
Psychology
Criminal Justice
Communication

7. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Accounting
Psychology
Computer Science
Business
Political Science

8. Villanova University

Villanova, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,308

Enrollment

6,819

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Finance
Communication
Accounting
Marketing

9. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Psychology
Criminal Justice
Communication
Computer Science

10. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,880

Enrollment

4,177

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Accounting
Finance
Business
Marketing
Computer Technical Support

Top Skills For a Senior Support Specialist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.5% of senior support specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and listening skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Support Specialist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Senior Support Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Senior Support Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Senior Support Specialist Resume
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Senior Support Specialist Demographics

Senior Support Specialist Gender Distribution

Male
Male
61%
Female
Female
39%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among senior support specialists, 38.8% of them are women, while 61.2% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among senior support specialists is White, which makes up 55.7% of all senior support specialists.

  • The most common foreign language among senior support specialists is Spanish at 56.3%.

Online Courses For Senior Support Specialist That You May Like

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1. Technical Support Fundamentals

coursera

This course is the first of a series that aims to prepare you for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, you’ll be introduced to the world of Information Technology, or IT. You’ll learn about the different facets of Information Technology, like computer hardware, the Internet, computer software, troubleshooting, and customer service. This course covers a wide variety of topics in IT that are designed to give you an overview of what’s to come in this certificate program...

See More on Coursera

2. IBM Technical Support

coursera

Get ready for a rewarding career in Information Technology (IT) - no experience or degree is required to get started. With over 400,000 US job openings and an average entry-level salary of $52,000¹ Computer Support Specialists are in high demand with opportunities for career advancement. This Professional Certificate program from IBM was built by experts to prepare you for an entry-level job in Technical Support. When dedicating a few hours per week, you can complete the program in 3 to 6...

See More on Coursera

3. Technical Support Case Studies and Capstone

coursera

This course allows you to show what you’ve learned in the previous IT Technical Support professional certification courses and apply that knowledge to realistic situations. The IT Technical Support Capstone leads you through a series of technical support case studies that require hands-on work to resolve. You will practice analyzing user help requests and troubleshooting various issues. You’ll demonstrate your knowledge of hardware, software, networking, security, and cloud computing. You’ll...

See More on Coursera
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Best States For a Senior Support Specialist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior support specialist. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Connecticut, California, and Louisiana. Senior support specialists make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $117,469. Whereas in Connecticut and California, they would average $114,023 and $113,934, respectively. While senior support specialists would only make an average of $112,509 in Louisiana, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Louisiana

Total Senior Support Specialist Jobs: 469
Highest 10% Earn:
$188,000
Location Quotient:
1.1

$112,509

Avg. Salary

View 469 Senior Support Specialist Jobs In LA

2. New Mexico

Total Senior Support Specialist Jobs: 346
Highest 10% Earn:
$185,000
Location Quotient:
1.32

$105,632

Avg. Salary

View 346 Senior Support Specialist Jobs In NM

3. South Carolina

Total Senior Support Specialist Jobs: 711
Highest 10% Earn:
$177,000
Location Quotient:
1.19

$108,556

Avg. Salary

View 711 Senior Support Specialist Jobs In SC
Full List Of Best States For Senior Support Specialists

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Top Senior Support Specialist Employers

Most Common Employers For Senior Support Specialist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Ricoh$115,862$55.7014
2AT&T$109,648$52.7270
3Bank of America$105,303$50.6341
4JPMorgan Chase & Co.$104,500$50.2430
5Intuit$104,280$50.1319
6Capital One$102,754$49.4015
7Southern$93,747$45.0715
8Mercury Insurance$93,651$45.0221
9IBM$86,602$41.6433
10Lockheed Martin$85,753$41.2317
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Updated February 6, 2023