Kansas·Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations·SOC 27-4014

Best Sound Engineering Technician programs in Kansas, ranked by enrollment

Assemble and operate equipment to record, synchronize, mix, edit, or reproduce sound, including music, voices, or sound effects, for theater, video, film, television, podcasts, sporting events, and other.

2 schools in Kansas run programs that feed this job, graduating 17 people a year. The job pays a median of $62,710 in Kansas across about 30 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledAudio EngineerSound EngineerMixing EngineerRecording EngineerMixerProducerRecordistSound Mixer
Graduates / yr
17
in Kansas
Median pay · Kansas
$62,710
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
30
people employed
Schools
2
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
48%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Kansas that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Kansas that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Kansas (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Kansas page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 10.0203In Kansas
17
100.0%
2$21,634$20,000

Top 2 schools in Kansas

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 2 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Kansas City Kansas Community College
Kansas City, KS Public · 1 feeder programs
14Recording Arts Technology/Technician42%
2Hutchinson Community College
Hutchinson, KS Public · 1 feeder programs
3Recording Arts Technology/Technician53%

All 2 schools in Kansas

Every school in Kansas with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Kansas that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Kansas City Kansas Community CollegeKansas CityPublic141
Hutchinson Community CollegeHutchinsonPublic31

What sound engineering technicians earn in Kansas

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Kansas
$62,710
Mean annual
$64,510
Jobs in state
30
What the range looks like
10th pct$42,600Median$62,71090th pct$107,270
Versus the national median
-14.2%

U.S. median $73,130. Kansas pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.25×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
-1.7%
Decline
Openings per year
1,200
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
-300
16,900 → 16,600
Typical entry education
Postsecondary nondegree award
Plus short-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Sound Engineering Technicians page.

How to become a Sound Engineering Technician

Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0
Typical entry education
Postsecondary nondegree award
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Top skills

Active ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingReading ComprehensionWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Kansas

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 4 majors mapped to Sound Engineering Technicians4 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 10.0105Communications Technology/Technician
  • 10.0203Recording Arts Technology/Technician
  • 15.0307Audio Engineering Technology/Technician
  • 50.0913Music Technology

Common questions

Answers for people weighing sound engineering technicians programs in Kansas.

What degree do you need to become a Sound Engineering Technician?+

Postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Recording Arts Technology/Technician, which awarded 17 degrees in Kansas in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Sound Engineering Technician?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Audiovisual Communications Technologies/Technicians. Together they graduate about 17 people a year in Kansas.

How much do sound engineering technicians earn in Kansas?+

The median is $62,710 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 14.2% below the U.S. median of $73,130. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for sound engineering technicians growing?+

BLS projects a -1.7% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 1,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Kansas?+

2 institutions in Kansas reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do sound engineering technicians work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Audio Engineer, Sound Engineer, Mixing Engineer, Recording Engineer among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 27-4014.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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