---
title: "Wind Turbine Blade Technician"
description: "Inspects and repairs the giant composite blades of wind turbines, often while hanging from ropes or a platform high above the ground."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-turbine-blade-technician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Wind Turbine Blade Technician

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9081.00

Inspects and repairs the giant composite blades of wind turbines, often while hanging from ropes or a platform high above the ground.

Also advertised as: Blade Repair Technician; Wind Blade Technician; Composite Blade Technician; Rope Access Blade Technician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $30.83/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,230 to $92,460, with the middle half between $58,840 and $78,010
- **Total US employment:** 9,980
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +29.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 62/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 9,980 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $49,230 |
| 25th | $58,840 |
| 50th (median) | $64,120 |
| 75th | $78,010 |
| 90th | $92,460 |
| Mean (average) | $68,980 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $81,330 | $75,361 | 390 |
| KS | $78,240 | $86,868 | 330 |
| CA | $77,910 | $70,367 | 400 |
| IN | $76,680 | $82,161 | 140 |
| WA | $75,880 | $70,907 | 210 |
| IA | $74,880 | $85,322 | 900 |
| CO | $74,740 | $72,526 | 410 |
| OH | $73,880 | $79,634 | 120 |
| SD | $73,820 | $83,331 | 180 |
| ND | $66,700 | $74,978 | 310 |
| NC | $66,380 | $70,373 | 120 |
| AZ | $66,330 | $65,884 | 80 |
| MO | $65,230 | $71,826 | 80 |
| MN | $65,000 | $65,909 | 450 |
| WY | $62,830 | $67,784 | 90 |

10 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 25 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-turbine-blade-technician/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/wind-turbine-blade-technician.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 11,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 15,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,500 jobs, or +29.5%. Much faster than average: 29.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 34.4% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 28.7% |
| Some College Courses | 21.8% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 15.1% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect turbine blades and document damage with photos and reports
- Access blades by rope access, suspended platforms or internal entry
- Grind out damaged composite laminate and prepare surfaces
- Rebuild laminate layers using resin, fiberglass and core materials
- Repair leading-edge erosion and apply protective coatings
- Test and repair blade lightning protection systems
- Follow manufacturer repair instructions and cure schedules
- Rig and inspect ropes, anchors and fall protection equipment

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.74 |
| I — Investigative | 4.44 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.77 |
| S — Social | 1.62 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 91.4 |
| ISTP | 82.8 |
| INTJ | 72.1 |
| ESTJ | 71.3 |
| ISFJ | 71.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Wind Turbine Service Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-turbine-service-technician) — median $64,120
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Wind Energy Operations Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-energy-operations-manager) — median $141,900
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Solar Photovoltaic Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer) — median $53,140
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Solar Thermal Installer and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-thermal-installer-and-technician) — median $63,800
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-powerhouse-substation-and-relay) — median $103,020

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/wind-turbine-blade-technician