How To Become A Technical Fellow: What It Is and Career Path

What is a technical fellow and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A technical fellow is an expert in a particular technical field and has made significant contributions to that field over time. They are thought leaders and help to drive innovation and provide technical guidance to an organization. Technical fellows typically have extensive experience and knowledge in their field and gain the respect of their peers. They often serve as mentors and advisors to other employees and work to develop new technologies, products, or services.

ScoreTechnical FellowUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $65,088

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 13.95%

Black or African American 8.00%

Hispanic or Latino 11.72%

Unknown 5.01%

White 61.01%

Gender

female 39.35%

male 60.65%

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

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a technical fellow?

Pros

Attractive compensation and benefits packages
Opportunities for professional growth and development
Access to top-of-the-line resources and tools
Chance to work with a talented team of engineers
Potential to make a significant impact on the industry

Cons

Difficulties in communication with non-technical stakeholders
Heavy responsibility for technical decisions and outcomes
Risk of burnout from high expectations and demands
Pressure to maintain a high level of performance and innovation
Possibility of being isolated from other engineers due to high-level responsibilities

Key steps to become a technical fellow

Explore technical fellow education requirements

Most common technical fellow degrees

Bachelor's

62.5 %

Master's

17.9 %

Doctorate

15.3 %

Start to develop specific technical fellow skills

Skills	Percentages
SQL	12.95%
Statistical Analysis	11.10%
Intellectual Property	10.84%
Photoshop	9.89%
R	9.51%

Complete relevant technical fellow training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New technical fellows 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 technical fellow based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real technical fellow resumes.

Research technical fellow duties and responsibilities

Manage, support, and analyze efforts relate to international and domestic climate change-relate issues.
Manage business-technology relationships - responsible for facilitating actionable requirements gathering, design & architecture, implementation, and build to operate.
Develop and maintain relationships and partnerships with customers, stakeholders, peers, partners and direct reports.
Image lab machines both mac and pc, security, networking, building computer labs, virus removal.

Prepare your technical fellow resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable technical fellow resume templates

Build a professional technical fellow 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 technical fellow resume.