Master Electrician Job Description Template (Duties, Requirements, Pay)

A master electrician reading your posting is reading for one question first: is this seat the license tier I hold, doing work that uses it?

This page gives you tier-specific wording for each block.

The cross-role guide to writing electrician job descriptions walks a full posting section by section, including how to phrase requirements — so this page stays on what changes when the hire holds the top tier.

Job summary

The summary is two to four sentences that answer four questions: what work, what supervision, what service area, and what the license is for at your shop.

Say plainly whether this master supervises crews, anchors the supervision journeymen work under, carries your contractor license's qualifier duties, or works as a hands-on lead on projects — a master electrician deciding whether to apply is deciding which of those seats they are reading about.

A workable skeleton:

[Company] is hiring a master electrician for [work mix: new construction / service / maintenance] across [service area]. In this seat you will [supervise journeymen and apprentices / carry the shop's qualifier duties / run layout and quality on [segment] projects], reporting to [role]. This is a [full-time] position.

Use the title candidates search for.

Master electrician is the license-tier title — Texas's class for the tier, for example, is literally Master Electrician — so keep it in the posting title.

The variant titles are classification names, not tiers: O*NET's sample titles for the electrician occupation (SOC 47-2111) include Inside Wireman, Electrical Journey Person, Industrial Electrician, Maintenance Electrician, and Control Electrician, so put those in the body copy only where your work mix genuinely matches.

The seat has a worker side too: the master electrician career guide covers what the tier is and how candidates earn it.

Your summary does the employer's half — it tells a master whether this work, this supervision structure, and this scope match the license they hold.

Duties and responsibilities

BLS's task list for the electrician occupation is an honest base for the duties block, because it describes what the occupation does rather than aspirational extras:

• Read blueprints or technical diagrams
• Install and maintain wiring, control, and lighting systems
• Inspect electrical components, such as transformers and circuit breakers
• Identify electrical problems using a variety of testing devices
• Repair or replace wiring, equipment, or fixtures using hand tools and power tools
• Follow state and local building regulations based on the National Electrical Code
• Direct and train workers

What makes a master posting different is the weight on the last line.

BLS notes electricians at larger companies usually work in crews and may direct helpers and apprentices — and in Texas, a journeyman performs electrical work under the general supervision of a Master Electrician, so the master is the supervision layer itself.

If that is your structure, the duty list should say so: who reviews layout before rough-in, who signs off quality, who trains and documents the apprentices' hours.

Then add the seat's own work your jobs actually involve — plan and specification review, layout and final walk-throughs, quality checks the office can bill behind, coordination with general contractors or building staff, and the records side: closeout documents, crew hours, and the training logs your crews run on.

Required license and certifications

The license line is the sentence a candidate uses to decide whether they can lawfully take the job, so write the class and the jurisdiction together:

Holds a current [master electrician, or the class your state issues for the tier] license issued by [state] — or the equivalent license the jurisdiction requires.

Qualifying experience is set by each state's board, so copy the gate your board sets rather than another state's.

Texas is the worked example: the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation requires a Master Electrician applicant to have held a journeyman license for at least two years and to show 12,000 hours of on-the-job training under the supervision of a master licensed in Texas — and Journeyman Industrial experience does not qualify.

Your state's board may count experience differently, and the tier name may differ too: licensing is state and sometimes municipal, so name the class the jurisdiction that governs your work actually issues.

Confirm the class before you post.

Boards change requirements and tier names, and licensing can be local as well as state — verify the license class and the qualifying-experience gate with the state licensing board (and the city or county, where it also licenses) before the requirement goes into the posting.

Keep certifications in their own block, and be precise about what each one is.

An OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card is not a license, and OSHA is explicit that Outreach training does not fulfill an employer's training requirements under its specific standards — though its own guidance notes the 30-hour class suits supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility.

List a card as a preference your contracts or clients ask for, not as the safety training itself.

On the training side, one duty OSHA sets on construction employers is to instruct each employee in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to their work (29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2)) — your posting can say who delivers that instruction on your sites.

Skills and physical requirements

Skills for a master posting are the ones the duties imply: blueprint and specification review, troubleshooting with testing devices, quality control and final sign-off, crew leadership that includes directing and training, and records that hold up at closeout.

Add the judgment the seat carries — sequencing a crew across jobs, catching a problem on the print before it is built, documenting the work the crew did — because that judgment is what separates the tier in practice.

Physical requirements deserve care because of how the ADA treats them: a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing is evidence of which job functions are essential (29 CFR 1630.2(n)(3)(ii)).

Write the demands the work actually involves, before the posting goes up:

• Stand, walk, kneel, and bend for extended periods on an active jobsite
• Climb ladders and work from lifts where the site requires them
• Work above finished ceilings, in attics, crawl spaces, and mechanical and electrical rooms where the work runs
• Lift and carry wire spools, material, tools, and test equipment as the work requires
• Ride in and work out of a service vehicle where the role moves between jobsites

Describe what the job involves and nothing it doesn't — the list exists to be accurate, not demanding.

In applications and interviews, the ADA lets you ask whether and how a candidate can perform the job's functions; the ADA bars asking about a disability or requiring a medical examination before a job offer.

Pay, schedule, and benefits lines

Give candidates a number or a basis.

The honest data position first: federal wage statistics report one occupation for every license tier, so there is no authoritative national journeyman-vs-master premium — treat any precise masters-earn-x-percent-more figure as a guess.

What the data does give you is the occupation you are hiring inside: BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025 (national, all industries) puts electricians (SOC 47-2111) at a median of $30.38 an hour ($63,190 a year), with the 25th percentile at $23.76 and the 75th at $40.36.

That band covers every tier together, so treat it as the market your offer competes in, not a master-only range — and price the seat's actual duties, supervision and any qualifier role included, into the offer you post.

On schedule, answer the questions a master will ask before applying: whether the role carries an on-call rotation on service work, how night and weekend work lands, how much time is truck time between jobsites, and whether the seat is split between the field and the office.

A schedule line left blank reads as a schedule the candidate won't like.

Pay disclosure may be a posting requirement rather than a choice, depending on the state.

California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in every job posting, including postings placed through third parties (Department of Industrial Relations).

Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits in job postings (Department of Labor & Industries).

Colorado requires employers to disclose compensation, benefits, and how to apply in all job postings, both internal and public (Department of Labor and Employment).

This page checks those three only — confirm the rules that reach your posting with your state labor agency.

Then list the benefits: medical, dental, and vision coverage; a retirement plan; paid time off; overtime expectations stated plainly; tool policy — company-provided or employee-supplied; and a company vehicle or per diem where the role runs between jobsites.

A posting that makes readers guess — no pay or pay basis, no license class or jurisdiction, no seat description — asks a master to apply on faith, and the top tier can afford to skip it.

Fill every one of those lines before it goes up.

Keep the wording about the license and the work.

The EEOC states it is illegal to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for, or discourages someone from applying because of, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40+), disability, or genetic information — so tie every requirement to the job's functions or the license class, and keep protected characteristics out of the copy entirely.

When applications land, screen the license first: capture the license number and issuing jurisdiction with the application, and confirm the individual's license with the board that issued it before an offer.

That license is separate from your business's own contractor license, where your state or locality requires one — confirm both with the licensing board.

The guide to hiring a master electrician covers verification, the qualifier seat, and offer strategy for this role end to end.

When the copy is right, the next decision is where to post it — the channel comparison walks the job boards and referral sources.

Then list the role on the board: master electrician jobs shows what candidates see.

Employer information, not licensing, legal, or employment advice. License classes and qualifying experience are set by each state's licensing board (and the city or county where it also licenses), safety training duties by OSHA, and job-posting and pay-disclosure rules by the state labor agencies named above — confirm the current rules with the agency that administers them before you post.