Surveying / Mapping Technician
Quick Facts
Median Salary$49,514
Most Common EducationHigh school or GED
Projected 10-Year Growth+14.78%
Assessment MatchTake the Assessment
What They Do
A Surveying or Mapping Technician works with surveyors and cartographers to gather data and create maps. Visits sites and records survey measurements and descriptive data. Selects data needed to create maps, including photos, aerial photos and satellite information, and helps produce and update maps that show boundaries or topographical information.
Core Tasks:
- Position and hold the vertical rods, or targets, that theodolite operators use for sighting to measure angles, distances, and elevations.
- Check all layers of maps to ensure accuracy, identifying and marking errors and making corrections.
- Design or develop information databases that include geographic or topographic data.
- Monitor mapping work or the updating of maps to ensure accuracy, inclusion of new or changed information, or compliance with rules and regulations.
- Produce or update overlay maps to show information boundaries, water locations, or topographic features on various base maps or at different scales.
- Determine scales, line sizes, or colors to be used for hard copies of computerized maps, using plotters.
- Compile information necessary to stake projects for construction, using engineering plans.
- Identify and compile database information to create requested maps.
- Operate and manage land-information computer systems, performing tasks such as storing data, making inquiries, and producing plots and reports.
- Compare survey computations with applicable standards to determine adequacy of data.
- Analyze aerial photographs to detect and interpret significant military, industrial, resource, or topographical data.
- Research and combine existing property information to describe property boundaries in relation to adjacent properties, taking into account parcel splits, combinations, or land boundary adjustments.
- Calculate latitudes, longitudes, angles, areas, or other information for mapmaking, using survey field notes or reference tables.
- Compare topographical features or contour lines with images from aerial photographs, old maps, or other reference materials to verify the accuracy of their identification.
- Trace contours or topographic details to generate maps that denote specific land or property locations or geographic attributes.
- Provide assistance in the development of methods and procedures for conducting field surveys.
- Trim, align, and join prints to form photographic mosaics, maintaining scaled distances between reference points.
What to expect as a Surveying / Mapping Technician
1Earn a High school or GED Diploma
32% of people achieve this level of education.
2Gain skills and experience
See Surveying / Mapping Technician related courses on Tallo
3Land a job
1145 openings for Surveying / Mapping Technicians
Career Progression
in United States (Nation)
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