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

What is a survey director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average survey director salary is $59,087. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 4-6 years of experience to become a survey director. Survey directors with a Certified Survey Technician (CST) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 400 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSurvey DirectorUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,087

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 4.94%

Black or African American 3.31%

Hispanic or Latino 10.76%

Unknown 4.83%

White 75.64%

Gender

female 16.67%

male 83.33%

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 director

Explore survey director education requirements

Most common survey director degrees

Bachelor's

50.9 %

Associate

23.6 %

Master's

18.2 %

Start to develop specific survey director skills

Skills	Percentages
GPS	26.06%
Business Development	12.13%
Project Budget	8.32%
GIS	7.29%
Proposal Preparation	5.32%

Complete relevant survey director training and internships

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

Research survey director duties and responsibilities

Perform quality control and quality assurance reviews on exhibit documents submit to RMP for the right-of-way acquisition process.
Facilitate consumer understanding of NCQA standards.

Prepare your survey director resume

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

Build a professional survey director 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 director resume.