How To Become A Survey Coordinator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a survey coordinator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average survey coordinator salary is $54,107. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a survey coordinator. Survey coordinators with a Certified Survey Technician (CST) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 0% and produce -5,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSurvey CoordinatorUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $54,107

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

9.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.00%

Asian 5.26%

Black or African American 13.24%

Hispanic or Latino 20.47%

Unknown 5.44%

White 54.58%

Gender

female 39.67%

male 60.33%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.1

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.8

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a survey coordinator

Explore survey coordinator education requirements

Most common survey coordinator degrees

Bachelor's

57.0 %

Associate

16.2 %

Master's

12.5 %

Start to develop specific survey coordinator skills

Skills	Percentages
GPS	28.58%
Survey Data	8.42%
Civil 3D	6.34%
GIS	6.01%
CAD	5.05%

Complete relevant survey coordinator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New survey coordinators 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 survey coordinator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real survey coordinator resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed survey coordinator usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed survey coordinator in most of states. 44 states require survey coordinators to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alabama	Degree required	Both state and third-party exams required	Licensed Land Surveyor
Maryland	Degree required	State exam required	PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR
Alaska	-	-	Land Surveyor
Arkansas	-	State exam required	Professional Surveyor
California	Degree required	Both state and third-party exams required	Land Surveyor

Research survey coordinator duties and responsibilities

Record and maintain GIS data of complete departmental projects.
Utilize AutoCAD and several GIS programs to compose detail drawings/reports.
Provide training to cooperators and state inspectors on GPS, data entry and reporting requirements.
Perform quality control and quality assurance reviews on exhibit documents submit to RMP for the right-of-way acquisition process.

Prepare your survey coordinator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your survey coordinator 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 survey coordinator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable survey coordinator resume templates

Build a professional survey coordinator 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 survey coordinator resume.