Texas·Construction and Extraction Occupations·SOC 47-2072

Best Pile Driver Operator programs in Texas, ranked by enrollment

Operate pile drivers mounted on skids, barges, crawler treads, or locomotive cranes to drive pilings for retaining walls, bulkheads, and foundations of structures such as buildings, bridges, and.

1 schools in Texas run programs that feed this job, graduating 4 people a year. The job pays a median of $66,140 in Texas across about 280 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledPile DriverPile Driver OperatorPile Driving OperatorNozzle OperatorDriving OperatorDriving InspectorPile Driver EngineerPile Driving Leadsman
Graduates / yr
4
in Texas
Median pay · Texas
$66,140
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
280
people employed
Schools
1
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
25%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Texas that lead to this job

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

1 programs in Texas that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Texas (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 Texas page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 49.0202In Texas
4
100.0%
1$42,812$7,572

Top 1 schools in Texas

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 1 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Coastal Bend College
Beeville, TX Public · 1 feeder programs
4Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment Operation25%

All 1 schools in Texas

Every school in Texas 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 Texas that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Coastal Bend CollegeBeevillePublic41

What pile driver operators earn in Texas

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

Median annual in Texas
$66,140
Mean annual
$62,600
Jobs in state
280
What the range looks like
10th pct$45,220Median$66,14090th pct$70,930
Versus the national median
-9.8%

U.S. median $73,300. Texas pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
1.34×

Concentrated here: Texas employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in Texas

Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
$70,030median
80 jobs
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
$66,140median
90 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+4.3%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
300
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
100
3,200 → 3,300
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus moderate-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 Pile Driver Operators page.

How to become a Pile Driver Operator

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

MonitoringActive ListeningCritical ThinkingSpeakingReading ComprehensionWriting

The same job in other states

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

Related careers in Texas

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Pile Driver Operators1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 49.0202Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment Operation

Common questions

Answers for people weighing pile driver operators programs in Texas.

What degree do you need to become a Pile Driver Operator?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment Operation, which awarded 4 degrees in Texas in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Pile Driver Operator?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Ground Transportation. Together they graduate about 4 people a year in Texas.

How much do pile driver operators earn in Texas?+

The median is $66,140 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 9.8% below the U.S. median of $73,300. 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 pile driver operators growing?+

BLS projects a +4.3% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 300 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

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

1 institutions in Texas 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 pile driver operators work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Pile Driver, Pile Driver Operator, Pile Driving Operator among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 47-2072.

Pile Driver Operators in other statesLouisianaCaliforniaPennsylvaniaFlorida

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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