Cable Technician Job Description Templates for Install and Service Crews
6 free templates for contractors and small operators hiring without an HR department: residential install, service and repair, fiber splicing, outside plant, structured cabling, and lead technician. Download as DOCX.
The first cable technician posting I ever helped rewrite was two sentences long and ended with the phrase "must be reliable." It belonged to a regional broadband contractor with nine trucks, and it produced a stack of applicants who wanted a desk job, a stack who had never been on a ladder, and one genuinely qualified splicer who took another offer while the owner was still deciding.
The problem was not the writing. The problem was that cable technician is a job family, not a job. Residential install, service and repair, fiber splicing, outside plant, and commercial structured cabling all share the title and share almost nothing else: different tools, different certifications, different hazard exposure, and pay bands roughly thirty thousand dollars apart at the median.
At FirstHR we build hiring templates for owners who write their own postings between a dispatch call and a truck problem. The six below cover each variant, with the overtime, travel time, and safety training notes that generic templates leave out. More are in the hiring templates library.
TL;DR
Cable technician covers five different jobs, so the posting has to name the variant before anything else. Every field variant is non-exempt and overtime-eligible, and piece rate raises the regular rate rather than removing the premium. National medians run $63,890 for equipment installers and $74,330 for line installers (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
One Title, Five Different Jobs
Cable technician is a job family, not a job. The title covers residential install, service and repair, fiber splicing, outside plant line work, and commercial structured cabling, and those five differ in tools, certifications, risk exposure, and pay. Naming the variant in the first line of the posting does more filtering work than the rest of the document combined.
The federal occupational classification system splits the work the same way. Line installers sit in one occupation and equipment installers in another, and the median wage gap between them is over ten thousand dollars a year. A posting that treats them as interchangeable is quoting the wrong rate to half its applicants.
Residential install
In the customer's home
New drops, in-home wiring, modems and set-top boxes, and a customer standing behind you the whole time. Ladders and attics are the daily hazard. The hire fails on service skills far more often than on technical skills.
Service and repair
Trouble calls and outages
Meter work, ingress and noise hunting, and telling a plant problem from an in-home problem. Requires more diagnostic depth than install and usually carries an on-call rotation with real compensability questions.
Outside plant and aerial
Poles, lifts, and conduit
Strand, trunk cable, taps, power supplies, and storm restoration. The highest-hazard variant: falls, aerial lifts, energized conductors, roadway exposure, confined spaces. Training records are not optional here.
Structured cabling
Commercial buildings
Cat6A and fiber backbone, patch panels, certification reports, and TIA labeling. Different customer, different standards, and in several states a separate low-voltage or limited energy license.
Name the Variant in the First Line
Write the specific job in the opening sentence: residential install, trouble calls, fiber splicing, outside plant, or commercial cabling. Then name the actual test equipment the technician will use, because that single detail tells an experienced candidate more about the role than three paragraphs of duties. A splicer scanning for an OTDR and a fusion splicer will stop reading a posting that only mentions ladders and modems, which is exactly what you want.
What Belongs in the Posting
A cable technician job description does four jobs at once: it sells the route, it filters out applicants who cannot meet the physical and licensing requirements, it protects you legally, and it closes a candidate who is looking at three other openings. Most postings do only the first.
The parts technicians read first
Which variant this is: install, service, fiber, plant, or cabling
Hourly rate or a real range, stated up front
Schedule, on-call rotation, and expected overtime
Truck, tools, and test equipment: provided or not
The parts that filter applicants
Certifications marked required or preferred, not blended together
Essential functions written plainly for accommodation purposes
Safety training requirement named before first field assignment
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
Bonus or incentive structure explained, not hinted at
Paid training and certification reimbursement
Route density and average jobs per day
A named person to contact and a fast decision timeline
The most common omission at small contractors is the physical requirements section. Lift weight, ladder height, attic and crawl space work, confined space entry, and outdoor exposure are genuine essential functions of this trade, and writing them plainly is what makes a later accommodation conversation possible. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and job posting requirements by state covers what you are legally obliged to disclose.
6 Cable Technician Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you change.
Download All 6 Cable Technician Job Description Templates
Residential install, service and repair, fiber splicing, outside plant, structured cabling, and lead technician. All in one download.
Residential Install Tech
Drops, wiring, activation
The in-home installation role, with grounding, signal verification, customer handover, and the piece-rate overtime warning built in.
Service and Repair Tech
Trouble calls, on-call
For the diagnostic side: meter work, root cause documentation, storm response, and an honest note on when on-call time is paid.
Fiber Splicing Tech
Fusion splicing and OTDR
For fiber build and restoration: splicing, testing, loss budgets, closeout documentation, and out-of-area travel-time policy.
Outside Plant / Aerial
Poles, lifts, storm work
For plant maintenance and construction, with pole climbing, aerial lift qualification, locate tickets, and the safety training file.
Structured Cabling Tech
Commercial low-voltage
For copper and fiber in commercial buildings: pathway, termination, certification, licensing, and prevailing wage projects.
Lead Technician
Crew lead and trainer
For the working lead, with crew routing, quality audits, and a blunt warning about assuming the executive exemption applies.
Template 1: Residential Cable and Internet Installation Technician
The in-home installation role, with drops, grounding, signal verification, customer handover, and the piece-rate overtime warning built in.
Residential Cable and Internet Installation Technician Job Description
RESIDENTIAL CABLE AND INTERNET INSTALLATION TECHNICIAN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Field Supervisor / Operations Manager / Owner]
Compensation: $_ per hour, plus [completion bonus / quality bonus]
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] installs [cable television, broadband internet, and voice]
service for residential customers across [service area]. We run [number] trucks
and complete [number] installs a week. This role is the person the customer
actually meets, so the work is half technical and half service.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Residential Installation Technician runs new service drops and in-home
wiring, installs and activates customer premises equipment, verifies signal
levels, and educates the customer on the service before leaving the property.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Run aerial and underground service drops from the tap or pedestal to the home
•Install, ground, and bond the demarcation point per code and company standard
•Pull and terminate coax, Cat5e/Cat6, and fiber drop cable inside the home
•Install and activate modems, routers, set-top boxes, and voice adapters
•Test and document signal levels, downstream/upstream power, and error rates
•Diagnose and correct in-home wiring faults found during the install
•Walk the customer through the service and collect any required sign-off
•Close each job in the mobile work order system before leaving the site
•Maintain truck inventory, ladders, meters, and personal protective equipment
•Follow all company safety rules for ladders, heights, and traffic exposure
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent
•[Number] months of installation, low-voltage, or trade experience, or
completion of our paid training program
•Valid driver's license with a driving record that meets our insurance standard
•Ability to lift [50] pounds, climb ladders to [28] feet, and work in attics,
crawl spaces, and outdoors in all weather
•Comfortable in customer homes and able to explain technical issues plainly
•Must clear a criminal background check and [drug screen] before start
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
This is a non-exempt hourly role. Overtime is owed at time and a half past 40
hours in a workweek. If you pay a per-job or piece rate, overtime is still owed
and is calculated from the regular rate derived from total weekly earnings, not
from a nominal hourly figure. Travel between job sites during the day is hours
worked. Loading the truck, receiving the route, and required pre-shift meetings
are hours worked. Confirm your state overtime and meal/rest break rules, which
may be stricter than federal law. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [bonus structure], [tools and truck provided],
[benefits summary]. To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 2: Cable Service and Repair Technician
For the diagnostic side of the operation: meter work, root cause documentation, storm response, and an honest note on when on-call time counts as hours worked.
Cable Service and Repair Technician Job Description
CABLE SERVICE AND REPAIR TECHNICIAN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Field Supervisor / Dispatch Manager]
Employment type: Full-time, with [on-call rotation]
For fiber build and restoration work: fusion splicing, OTDR testing, loss budgets, and closeout documentation. If the role is mostly enterprise network side rather than plant side, the network technician templates fit better.
Fiber Optic Splicing Technician Job Description
FIBER OPTIC SPLICING TECHNICIAN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Construction Manager / Outside Plant Supervisor]
For plant construction and maintenance, with pole climbing, aerial lift qualification, locate tickets, and storm restoration. For electric utility line work rather than communications plant, use the lineman templates instead.
For copper and fiber in commercial buildings, with pathway, termination, certification reporting, and state licensing notes. Where the scope crosses into line voltage, pair it with the electrician templates.
Compensation: $_ per hour, [prevailing wage on public projects]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] installs structured cabling for commercial clients: offices,
schools, warehouses, healthcare, and [vertical]. We are hiring a Low-Voltage
Technician to pull, terminate, test, and certify copper and fiber in occupied
and new-construction buildings.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Structured Cabling Technician installs pathways and cable, terminates and
tests copper and fiber links, labels and documents to standard, and delivers
certification results the client can accept.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Install J-hooks, conduit, cable tray, and other pathway per print
•Pull Cat5e/Cat6/Cat6A and fiber backbone in ceilings, walls, and risers
•Terminate patch panels, jacks, and fiber cassettes to TIA standard
•Certify links with a cable analyzer and produce the test report
•Rack, dress, and label racks, cabinets, and telecom rooms
•Install and connect [access control, cameras, WAPs, AV] where in scope
•Read prints and mark up redlines for as-built documentation
•Work in occupied buildings with minimal disruption to the client
•Follow all ladder, lift, and fall protection procedures on site
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent
•[Number] years of structured cabling or low-voltage experience
•Working knowledge of TIA-568 cabling standards and labeling practice
•[BICSI Installer 1/2 or manufacturer certification preferred]
•[State low-voltage or limited energy license required: check your state]
•OSHA 10 [required / provided within 30 days]
•Valid driver's license and a clean driving record
•Ability to lift [50] pounds and work from ladders and lifts
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Non-exempt and overtime-eligible. Several states license low-voltage or limited
energy work separately from the electrical license, and a few fold it into the
electrical license entirely, so confirm the requirement with your state
licensing board before you post, not after you win the bid. Public and
prevailing wage projects carry certified payroll and posted wage determinations
that override your standard rate. Night and weekend cutover work in occupied
buildings is common in this variant and is straight overtime unless a valid
alternative schedule applies under state law. This is general information, not
legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [prevailing wage where applicable], [tools
provided], [benefits summary]. To apply, email __ with your
resume.
Template 6: Lead Cable Technician / Crew Lead
For the working lead who runs a crew, audits quality, and trains new hires. Broader multi-trade service roles are covered by the field service technician templates.
Lead Cable Technician / Crew Lead Job Description
LEAD CABLE TECHNICIAN / CREW LEAD JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Operations Manager / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt unless the executive exemption genuinely applies
(see note)
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] runs [number] technicians across [number] trucks. We are hiring a
Lead Technician to run a crew of [number], handle the escalations nobody else
can close, and bring new hires up to speed in the field.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Lead Cable Technician runs a field crew day to day, handles escalated
installs and repairs, performs quality audits on completed work, and trains new
technicians on standards, safety, and customer handling.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Assign and sequence the crew's daily route with dispatch
•Take escalated and repeat-trouble jobs personally
•Audit completed installs against our workmanship standard and document results
•Ride along with and coach new technicians through their first [number] weeks
•Run safety briefings and confirm PPE, ladder, and lift compliance
•Manage truck stock, tool assignments, and test equipment calibration
•Own the safety training file and certification renewals for the crew
•Report on completion rate, repeat calls, and quality scores to [manager]
•Interview and recommend candidates for technician openings
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of cable, broadband, or low-voltage field experience
•Demonstrated mastery of [install / service / fiber] work in this market
•Prior crew lead or training experience preferred
•[SCTE / BICSI / FOA certification preferred]
•Valid driver's license and a clean driving record
•Able to teach a standard, not just meet it
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Do not assume a lead technician is exempt. The executive exemption requires that
managing a recognized department is the primary duty, that the employee
customarily directs the work of two or more full-time equivalents, and that the
employee has real authority or influence over hiring and firing, on top of the
salary tests. A working lead who spends most of the week on a ladder is
performing the same job as the crew and is non-exempt no matter what the title
says. If you are unsure, classify as non-exempt and track hours. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [crew performance bonus], [truck and
tools provided], [benefits summary]. To apply, email __
with your resume.
Overtime, Piece Rate, and Travel Time
Every field variant of this role is non-exempt: hourly, hours tracked, and time and a half past forty in a workweek. No white-collar exemption fits installation and repair work, and the computer employee exemption covers systems analysis and software rather than field hardware installation.
The three places small contractors actually lose money are piece rate math, unpaid drive time between sites, and unpaid on-call standby. All three are settled law rather than gray areas, and all three compound across a crew before anyone notices.
Every field technician variant is non-exempt
There is no exemption that fits a cable technician. The work is manual and technical rather than managerial or administrative, and the computer employee exemption is written around systems analysis and software work, not around field installation of hardware. That means hourly pay, tracked hours, and time and a half past forty in a workweek for every one of the six roles on this page. The only role where the question is genuinely open is the lead technician, and even there a working lead who spends most of the week doing the same job as the crew is non-exempt regardless of a salary or a title. When in doubt, classify as non-exempt and track hours. Reclassifying later costs far less than back wages and liquidated damages. This is general information, not legal advice.
Piece rate and completion bonuses do not remove overtime
Paying per install, per point, or per completed job is normal in this trade and perfectly legal, but it does not convert the role to exempt and it does not cap the overtime obligation. Under federal law the overtime premium is calculated from the regular rate, which is total weekly compensation divided by total hours worked, including nondiscretionary production and quality bonuses. A technician who earns piece rate all week is still owed an additional half of that derived regular rate for every hour past forty. The common failure is a payroll setup that pays piece rate with a token hourly figure for overtime, which understates the premium every single week and compounds quietly across a crew. Run the calculation from actual weekly earnings. This is general information, not legal advice.
Windshield time is where the money leaks
Travel between job sites during the day is hours worked, not commuting, and this trade is built on it. The ordinary home-to-first-site and last-site-to-home commute is generally not compensable, but almost everything else in a technician's day is: driving from the first install to the second, returning to the warehouse for parts, loading the truck, attending a required pre-route meeting, and driving to a supply house mid-route. If technicians take a company truck home under conditions you impose, or pick up the route before leaving, the analysis gets more complicated and often tips toward compensable. Write the policy down, tell technicians which segments are on the clock, and make sure the mobile time system captures those segments automatically. This is general information, not legal advice.
Safety training must exist before the first assignment
OSHA's telecommunications standard requires employers to train employees in the precautions and safe practices it describes before those employees perform covered work, and to certify that training with records naming the trainee, the trainer, and the completion date. Community antenna television systems fall inside the standard's definition of communication lines, so cable plant work is covered. Add the topic-specific requirements that attach to what your crews actually do: fall protection, aerial lift operation, pole climbing, confined space entry for manholes and vaults, traffic control on roadway work, and electrical safety where clearance from energized conductors is in play. The rule of thumb that keeps small contractors out of trouble is simple. If a hazard appears in the job description, the matching training record has to exist before the technician meets that hazard. This is general information, not legal advice.
The travel rule that governs most of this is the principle that travel which is all in a day's work counts as hours worked: once a technician reports to the first site, the travel to every subsequent site that day is compensable. Our breakdowns of exempt versus non-exempt classification and overtime rules work through the tests and the regular rate calculation.
Misclassifying technicians as independent contractors is the more expensive version of the same mistake, and this trade has a long history of it. The Department of Labor tests the relationship on economic reality rather than on the contract, weighing control, opportunity for profit or loss, investment, permanence, skill, and how integral the work is to your business. A technician running your dispatched route in your truck is an employee, and our guide to what counts as an independent contractor covers where the genuine line sits.
Safety Training and Certifications
Employer-provided safety training is mandatory before a technician performs covered work, and it has to be documented. Industry certifications, by contrast, are voluntary and negotiable. Confusing the two is how small contractors end up with an impressive certification list and an empty training file.
OSHA's telecommunications standard requires training in the precautions and safe practices it describes before an employee engages in covered activity, along with a certification record naming the trainee, the trainer, and the completion date. Community antenna television systems fall inside its definition of communication lines, so cable plant work is covered. Broader employer duties are summarized in our guide to OSHA requirements for employers.
Requirement
Applies to
How to handle it in the posting
OSHA telecommunications training
All plant and field work
State that training is provided and required before first field assignment
Fall protection and ladder safety
Install, service, aerial
Name it as employer-provided; do not list it as a candidate requirement
Aerial lift operation
Outside plant, aerial
Mark required or provided, and say which
Confined space entry
Manholes, vaults, handholes
Required before the first underground assignment
Traffic control
Roadway and right-of-way work
Employer-provided; name the standard you follow
State low-voltage license
Commercial structured cabling
Check your state board, then mark required or not required
SCTE, BICSI, or FOA credential
Varies by variant
Mark preferred and offer to pay for it; rarely worth making required
Driver's license and MVR
Every variant
State the driving record standard your insurer sets
Treat certifications as a recruiting asset rather than a gate. In a market where skilled technicians are scarce, a posting that offers to pay for a fiber or broadband credential and gives paid time to sit for it will out-recruit one that demands the credential up front.
What to Pay a Cable Technician
There is no federal occupation called cable technician, so pay has to be read from the two classifications the work splits across. Line installers and equipment installers are surveyed separately, and the gap between their medians is over ten thousand dollars a year.
Both classifications explicitly list this title. The federal occupational database names cable technician and cable television technician among the reported job titles for telecommunications line installers and repairers, and names broadband technician and install and repair technician for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers.
National Wage Benchmarks for the Two Matching Occupations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), telecommunications line installers and repairers earned a median of $74,330 a year ($35.73 hourly), and telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers, earned a median of $63,890 a year ($30.72 hourly). The tenth percentile sits at $45,310 and $44,240 respectively (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Occupation (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
10th percentile
Median
90th percentile
Closest cable technician variant
Telecommunications line installers and repairers
$45,310
$74,330
$103,680
Outside plant, aerial, fiber splicing
Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers
$44,240
$63,890
$96,730
Residential install, service and repair
Security and fire alarm systems installers
$38,800
$60,070
$81,150
Low-voltage crews that also run alarm and camera work
Two more figures matter when you are setting a rate. Employment in both telecom classifications is projected to decline through the 2024 to 2034 decade even though openings continue: an average of 8,900 a year for line installers and 13,200 a year for equipment installers, almost entirely from replacement rather than growth. Security and fire alarm systems installers, by contrast, are projected to grow much faster than average, which is why low-voltage crews that carry both skill sets have leverage on rate. Publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency laws apply.
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Four sentences belong in every cable technician posting: one on the driving record standard, one on the background check, one on the drug screen where the role is safety-sensitive, and one stating the physical requirements as concrete numbers rather than adjectives.
These are filters, not boilerplate. In-home work means the technician is alone in a customer's house, so most operators and most of their upstream contracts require a criminal background check, and candidates who will not clear one tend to stop reading. Our guides to running a background check and to background check laws by state cover the process and the notice requirements.
The Driving Record Is Not a Formality
Every variant of this role drives a company vehicle, and your commercial auto insurer sets a driving record standard whether or not you have read it. Pull the motor vehicle record before the first day, re-pull it annually, and write the standard into the posting so candidates self-select. A technician who loses their license mid-employment becomes an immediate operational and insurance problem, which is why the annual re-check belongs on a tracked renewal date rather than in someone's memory. If any vehicle in the fleet requires a CDL, federal drug and alcohol testing rules attach to those drivers separately.
Hiring Technicians Without an HR Department
Small contractor hiring fails in three predictable places: the posting is too vague to filter, the decision is too slow to win, and the onboarding paperwork is scattered across a truck, a filing cabinet, and someone's phone. Each one has a fix.
Your posting says cable technician and you get five different candidates
The title is a job family, not a job. A residential installer, a service technician, a fiber splicer, an outside plant technician, and a structured cabling technician all answer to the same two words, and they arrive with different tools, different certifications, different hazard exposure, and pay bands that spread across roughly thirty thousand dollars. A vague posting collects all five, and you spend your screening time sorting instead of evaluating. Name the variant in the first line, list the specific test equipment the person will touch, and state whether the work is residential, commercial, or plant. The candidate pool shrinks and the interview quality goes up in the same week.
You lose good technicians to whoever answers first
Skilled field technicians are not sitting in an inbox waiting. They are working, they are getting recruited off the truck by the contractor down the road, and they apply to three or four openings on the same evening. A small contractor competing against a national operator will rarely win on base rate, so win on the things a small shop actually controls: route density that means fewer wasted miles, a truck the technician keeps, paid certification and the time to sit for it, an owner who answers the phone, and a hiring decision inside a week instead of a month. Put those in the posting rather than saving them for the second interview, because there often is not a second interview.
The safety file, the certifications, and the driving records live in four different places
Field technician onboarding is a compliance stack, not a welcome packet. Every hire needs a signed offer, a background check result, a driving record on file with an annual re-check, a drug screen where the role is safety-sensitive, PPE issued and acknowledged, and documented training for every hazard in the job description, each with a renewal date attached. Miss one and it surfaces during an inspection or, much worse, after an incident. FirstHR was built for exactly this: the onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every technician, e-signature captures policy and PPE acknowledgments, training modules deliver and record safety orientation before the first field assignment, and document management stores certifications and clearances against each employee profile with expiry dates tracked. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable sequence rather than a scramble. Our onboarding checklist covers the general structure, and for a field trade the additions are specific: PPE issued and acknowledged, safety training completed and recorded before the first assignment, certifications and driving records on file with renewal dates attached.
Key Takeaways
Cable technician is a job family covering residential install, service and repair, fiber splicing, outside plant, and structured cabling, so name the variant in the first line of the posting.
Every field variant is non-exempt: hourly, hours tracked, and time and a half past forty in a workweek, with no white-collar exemption that fits the work.
Piece rate and completion bonuses raise the regular rate rather than removing the overtime premium, and travel between job sites during the day is compensable hours worked.
National medians (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run $63,890 for telecommunications equipment installers and $74,330 for line installers, with tenth percentiles near $44,000 for both.
OSHA's telecommunications standard requires documented safety training before an employee performs covered work, and community antenna television systems fall inside its scope.
State the driving record standard, the background check, the drug screen, and the physical requirements as concrete numbers, because all four filter applicants before you spend time on them.
Field technician onboarding is a compliance stack, not a welcome packet. FirstHR runs the same sequence for every technician, with e-signature for offers and PPE acknowledgments, training modules that deliver and record safety orientation before the first field assignment, and document management holding certifications, driving records, and clearances with renewal dates tracked. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a cable technician do?
A cable technician installs, tests, troubleshoots, and repairs the physical cable that carries television, internet, and voice service, plus the equipment at both ends of it. In practice the title covers five distinct jobs. A residential installer runs service drops and in-home wiring and sets up modems and set-top boxes. A service technician diagnoses signal loss, ingress, and connectivity faults on trouble calls. A fiber splicing technician fusion splices single-mode fiber and certifies it with an OTDR. An outside plant technician places and maintains aerial and underground cable from bucket trucks and poles. A structured cabling technician pulls, terminates, and certifies copper and fiber in commercial buildings. Tools, certifications, hazard exposure, and pay differ across all five, so a job description that does not name the variant will attract the wrong applicants.
What should a cable technician job description include?
It should include eight things: the specific variant of the role, the hourly rate or a good-faith range, the schedule including any on-call rotation and expected overtime, the day-to-day responsibilities with the actual test equipment named, certifications marked clearly as required or preferred, the driver's license and driving record standard, the physical requirements stated concretely as lift weight and ladder height and confined space work, and the FLSA classification. Add the background check and drug screen notice, the safety training requirement, an equal opportunity statement, and a named person to apply to. The physical requirements matter more here than in most trades, both because they are genuine essential functions and because writing them plainly is what makes an accommodation conversation possible later. The six templates on this page follow that structure.
Are cable technicians exempt from overtime?
No. Cable technicians are non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which means hourly pay, tracked hours, and time and a half for every hour past forty in a workweek. No white-collar exemption fits the work: it is manual and technical rather than managerial or administrative, and the computer employee exemption covers systems analysis and software work rather than field installation of hardware. Paying per install or per completed job does not change this. The overtime premium is calculated from the regular rate, meaning total weekly earnings divided by total hours worked including nondiscretionary bonuses, so piece rate raises the premium rather than removing it. A lead technician is the only variant where exemption is even arguable, and a working lead who spends most of the week doing crew work is non-exempt regardless of title or salary.
How much does a cable technician make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called cable technician, so pay has to be read from the two classifications the work splits across. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), telecommunications line installers and repairers earned a national median of $74,330 a year, with the tenth percentile at $45,310 and the ninetieth at $103,680. Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers, earned a median of $63,890 a year, with the tenth percentile at $44,240 and the ninetieth at $96,730. Residential install and service roles sit closer to the second figure, while outside plant and aerial work sits closer to the first. Benchmark to your local market rather than the national median, and publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency rules apply.
Do cable technicians need a license or certification?
There is no federal license for cable technicians, but three separate requirements can apply depending on the variant and the state. First, several states license low-voltage or limited energy work, and a few fold it into the electrical license, which matters most for commercial structured cabling work. Second, industry certifications are common but voluntary: SCTE credentials for broadband and premises work, BICSI for structured cabling, and FOA for fiber. Third, and this one is not optional, employer-provided safety training is required under OSHA's telecommunications standard before an employee performs covered work, with training records naming the trainee, the trainer, and the completion date. Add aerial lift, fall protection, confined space, and traffic control training wherever those hazards appear in the job. Check your state licensing board before you post, not after you win the bid.
Can I hire cable technicians as independent contractors?
Usually not, and this trade has a long history of expensive misclassification cases. The Department of Labor tests the relationship on economic reality rather than on what the contract says, weighing the nature and degree of control, the worker's opportunity for profit or loss through managerial skill, relative investments, permanence, skill and initiative, and how integral the work is to the business. A technician who runs the route you dispatch, in the truck you provide, wearing your uniform, to your workmanship standard, on the schedule you set, is an employee under that analysis whatever the paperwork says. Genuine subcontracting exists in this industry, typically with a crew that carries its own trucks, insurance, tools, and multiple clients. If your arrangement does not look like that, classify as a W-2 employee and pay overtime.
What is the difference between a cable technician and a fiber technician?
The difference is the medium, and it changes the tools, the testing, and the pay. A cable technician in the traditional sense works primarily with coaxial cable and the hybrid fiber-coax plant behind it, using a signal level meter to hunt ingress, noise, and return-path problems. A fiber technician works with glass, which means fusion splicing, connector preparation and cleaning, OTDR trace interpretation, and loss budget documentation, plus laser safety practices that have no coax equivalent. Many technicians now do both, because fiber to the home has pushed splicing work down to the drop level. Hire for the medium your plant actually uses, and if you are mid-migration, write one posting that names both and states which certification you will pay to add. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, so for now keep applicants for each variant in a separate thread.
