Construction Superintendent Career Guide,
Salary, Licence & Jobs 2026

Construction superintendents are counted within First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers (SOC 47-1011), whose OEWS May 2025 median is $79,920 a year, or $38.42 an hour, ranging from $53,280 at the 10th percentile to $128,260 at the 90th. Large commercial and infrastructure projects, high-cost markets, and senior or general-superintendent roles push pay toward the upper end.

Almost always by promotion from the field. The usual path is mastering a trade such as carpentry, moving up to foreman, and then to superintendent as you show you can sequence trades, coordinate subcontractors and run safety on a whole site. BLS classifies the role on related work experience rather than a degree, and OSHA 30-hour construction training is standard. Some superintendents add a construction-management degree to move toward project management.

You set your career intent, target role, location, salary, credentials, and timeline, in 3 minutes. Our recruiters benchmark your pay against BLS data and live employer requirements, then bring matching permanent job opportunities directly to you. No applications. No job boards. We verify your credentials so employers see a complete, credible profile. After placement, we pay your licence renewal fees. Permanent, full-time, direct-hire only.

A superintendent runs the jobsite day to day: sequencing the trades, coordinating subcontractors and deliveries, driving the field schedule, enforcing OSHA 1926 safety, and checking the work for quality against the drawings. They keep a daily log, run huddles with foremen, resolve field conflicts, and report progress and issues to the project manager. It is the field counterpart to the office-based PM.

A foreman leads a single crew or trade and works close to the tools; a superintendent runs the whole jobsite — every trade, subcontractor, the field schedule and safety. Both fall under First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades (SOC 47-1011) at a $79,920 median, but the superintendent's scope is site-wide and the foreman's is crew-level, and superintendent is the usual step up from foreman.

There is no license for the role itself. The expected credential is OSHA 30-hour construction training, since the superintendent owns the site's 29 CFR 1926 safety program day to day, and first-aid/CPR and a BCSP CHST are common additions. A contractor license may be required at the company level, but the individual superintendent is not personally licensed the way an engineer or surveyor is.

It is the strongest no-degree field-leadership role in construction. BLS projects 5.3% employment growth for first-line construction supervisors over 2024–2034 with about 74,400 openings a year, the $79,920 median is well above the trades it supervises, and general superintendents reach the $128,260 top decile. The trade-offs are the daily accountability for field safety and schedule and the long hours a live jobsite demands.