Hypersonics Technicians

Aspiring technicians should obtain as much experience as possible during their college education, apprenticeship program, or military training. Some experience options include participating in an internship or cooperative education opportunity, volunteering, or landing a part-time or summer job, as well as taking classes in hypersonics technology that are offered by professional associations, postsecondary institutions, and for-profit, online education providers.

Successful technicians need excellent communication skills because they must convey their findings orally and in writing to other technicians, scientists, and engineers. The ability to work well with others and strong interpersonal skills are important because technicians work as a member of a team on a daily basis, and teams typically feature people of different ages, educational backgrounds, genders, and cultural backgrounds. Technicians need excellent mechanical and technical ability—as well as knowledge of computer-aided design and modeling software—in order to build, test, and troubleshoot the systems and structures that engineers design. Other important traits include the ability to follow instructions; strong time-management, organizational, and problem-solving skills; enthusiasm; attention to detail; and creativity.