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

What is a survey crew chief and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A survey crew chief is someone who supervises all matters that relate to land surverying. They have to be adept at reading engineering construction plans, legal documents pertaining to a land's right of way and drainage, and various benchmarks for a construction project's future designs. They also need to be knowledgeable about the different instruments used in land surveying.

To qualify for this position, a survey crew chief is expected to have effective leadership skills, communication skills, and technical expertise related to the job. They are also required to have high organizational, mathematical, and technical writing skills.

Being a survey crew chief is a demanding job; one has to be flexible in this line of work because they might need to spend a night or a week in a remote location, experience all kinds of terrain, and work even in unfavorable weather conditions.

Most employers will not require a college degree for this job post. However, a survey crew chief will be more qualified if they have at least two years of experience in conducting land surveys, with ample experience in directing a survey crew.

ScoreSurvey Crew ChiefUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,849

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 4.91%

Black or African American 3.29%

Hispanic or Latino 10.70%

Unknown 4.82%

White 75.76%

Gender

female 4.02%

male 95.98%

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

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a survey crew chief

Explore survey crew chief education requirements

Most common survey crew chief degrees

Bachelor's

40.0 %

Associate

31.4 %

High School Diploma

19.0 %

Start to develop specific survey crew chief skills

Skills	Percentages
GPS	21.40%
Data Collection	8.48%
Survey Equipment	7.24%
Survey Data	7.16%
Boundary Surveys	4.98%

Complete relevant survey crew chief training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 2-4 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New survey crew chiefs 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 crew chief based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real survey crew chief resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed survey crew chief usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed survey crew chief in most of states. 44 states require survey crew chiefs 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 crew chief duties and responsibilities

Utilize GPS technology to manage a two man robotic crew assign to residential/ commercial development projects.
Preform mowing duties on entire park including baseball and softball fields.
Work with TDS software, Topcon and Leica instruments, construction and building layout.
Perform all duties relate to field maintenance such as raking, mowing, watering, etc.

Prepare your survey crew chief resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your survey crew chief 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 crew chief 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 crew chief resume templates

Build a professional survey crew chief 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 crew chief resume.