Automotive Technician Program Supervisor
An Automotive Technician Program Supervisor oversees an automotive training program, maintaining high-quality faculty through recruitment, training, and classroom evaluations, and resolving issues that affect student retention. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does an Automotive Technician Program Supervisor do?
An Automotive Technician Program Supervisor oversees the management of an automotive technology training program, focusing on maintaining high-quality faculty through recruitment, training, and classroom evaluations. The role is pivotal in resolving issues that affect student retention and in ensuring the program’s continuous improvement.
The supervisor balances faculty leadership, accreditation compliance, and program administration, and may assume instructor responsibilities as needed. It is a hands-on leadership role within career and technical education, part of the broader higher education sector.
ACCSC (Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges) is a national accreditor of trade and career schools, and a supervisor ensures the program meets its standards alongside applicable state regulatory requirements. A PAC (Program Advisory Committee) is the panel of industry representatives that keeps a program’s curriculum aligned with real-world employer needs.
What does the Program Supervisor oversee?
Key responsibilities of an Automotive Technician Program Supervisor
- Ensure adherence to ACCSC and applicable state regulatory requirements.
- Oversee student retention, graduation, and job placement to achieve program benchmarks.
- Address student issues, and counsel students on academic and attendance matters to enhance retention and graduation.
- Train and supervise instructional staff.
- Conduct quarterly classroom observations and weekly course visits.
- Verify instructor qualifications and currency of knowledge.
- Manage the program budget and supplies, verify grade book accuracy, and monitor attendance.
- Establish and monitor program improvement goals, and identify and communicate program issues for timely resolution.
- Instruct curriculum as needed, assuming instructor responsibilities to maintain continuity.
- Organize bi-annual Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings and weekly faculty meetings.
- Participate in required meetings, trainings, and student orientations, and work closely with Career Services on curriculum development.
- Maintain contact with students on leave and organize guest speaker sessions.
- Assist with curriculum revision and the acquisition of training vehicles.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Associate’s degree in Automotive Technology or a related field.
- Five or more years in automotive repair or a related field, plus one or more years of instructional experience.
- Full-time, salaried position in a shop and classroom environment, with some evening shift coverage as needed.
- Medium physical work level, including standing for extended periods and exposure to a typical automotive shop environment.
Why is the Program Supervisor role important?
The program supervisor sets the quality bar for an automotive training program. Faculty development, accreditation compliance, and student retention all run through this role, which means it directly shapes whether students graduate job-ready and whether the program keeps its accreditation and standing.
Because the supervisor also teaches and stays close to industry through advisory committees, the strongest candidates pair real shop credibility with the leadership skill to develop instructors and hold a program to standard. That combination is what keeps a career program both rigorous and relevant.
A hiring note from Excelon
Career and technical program leadership is a specific blend: deep trade credibility plus the administrative discipline to manage accreditation and retention. Through our higher education practice, we look for supervisors who can earn instructors’ respect on the shop floor and still run clean PAC meetings, budgets, and ACCSC documentation, since programs live or die on both halves of that equation.
A career program lives or dies on two things at once: shop-floor credibility and the discipline to hold it to standard.
Related sample job descriptions
Automotive Technician Program Supervisor: frequently asked questions
What does an Automotive Technician Program Supervisor do?
An Automotive Technician Program Supervisor oversees an automotive technology training program, maintaining faculty quality through recruitment, training, and classroom evaluations, ensuring accreditation compliance, driving student retention and placement, and managing program administration. The supervisor may also teach as needed.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires an associate’s degree in Automotive Technology or a related field, five or more years in automotive repair or a related field, and at least one year of instructional experience.
What is ACCSC accreditation?
ACCSC, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, is a national accreditor of trade and career schools. A program supervisor ensures the program meets ACCSC standards alongside applicable state regulatory requirements.
Does this role include teaching?
Yes. In addition to supervising the program and faculty, the Automotive Technician Program Supervisor instructs curriculum as needed and may assume instructor responsibilities to maintain continuity of instruction.
Why is this role important?
The program supervisor sets the quality bar for an automotive training program. Faculty development, accreditation compliance, and student retention all run through this role, which directly shapes whether students graduate job-ready and whether the program keeps its standing.
Hiring an Automotive Program Supervisor?
Excelon Associates places program supervisors and career and technical education leaders at trade schools and career colleges across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.