How To Become A Physical Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a physical director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a physical director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $33.7 an hour? That's $70,099 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 28% and produce 136,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePhysical DirectorUS Average

Salary

5.5

Avg. Salary $70,099

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.1

Growth Rate 28%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 8.06%

Black or African American 10.78%

Hispanic or Latino 14.53%

Unknown 4.27%

White 61.65%

Gender

female 20.81%

male 79.19%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress Level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a physical director

Explore physical director education requirements

Most common physical director degrees

Bachelor's

60.1 %

Master's

13.4 %

Associate

11.4 %

Start to develop specific physical director skills

Skills	Percentages
HVAC	9.97%
Plumbing	9.82%
Rehabilitation	9.75%
Facilities Maintenance	8.44%
OSHA	8.08%

Complete relevant physical director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New physical directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a physical director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real physical director resumes.

Research physical director duties and responsibilities

Manage, delegate and perform facility repairs, apartment renovations, preventive maintenance and inventory control utilizing CMMS program for maintenance.
Initiate training program for personnel in general maintenance and repair of HVAC, electrical, and plumbing areas.
Create site specific written safety program for OSHA compliance.
Plant operations include maintaining H.V.A.C, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing carpentry needs, and irrigations systems

Get physical director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a physical director. The most common roles before becoming a physical director include physical therapist, staff physical therapist team lead and maintenance technician.

Prepare your physical director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your physical director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a physical director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Physical Director Resume templates

Build a professional Physical Director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Physical Director resume.