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Hiring a surveyor in Virginia Beach, VA

Employers in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC area pay surveyors a median of $72,100, with the middle half of the market between $57,850 and $92,250. Virginia Beach residents working in architecture and engineering occupations report a median of $90,488, which is 26% above what the metro pays for this role.

What does a surveyor earn here?

Place of work

What employers pay

Annual wages paid by employers in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC area. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
25th percentile$57,850
Median$72,100
75th percentile$92,250

Half of surveyors in this area earn between $57,850 and $92,250. A band set below $57,850 competes for the bottom quarter of the market.

Place of residence

What Virginia Beach residents earn

$90,488

Median earnings of Virginia Beach residents working in architecture and engineering occupations, 6,319 people. Census ACS 5-year 2023, tables S2401 and B24011. Where people live, not where they work, so it is not the same measurement as the wages beside it.

The 26% figure is not a pay gap. ACS counts the civilian employed population 16 and over, part-time and part-year work included; OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs only. The two populations differ, so read this number against other cities rather than as a shortfall: the same definitional difference applies to every city equally, which is what makes a city-to-city reading sound.

Residents here already earn more than this role pays, so your offer is competing with whatever they currently commute to.

What does the role actually involve?

Core tasks

  • Direct or conduct surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
  • Prepare and maintain sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
  • Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
  • Verify the accuracy of survey data, including measurements and calculations conducted at survey sites.
  • Search legal records, survey records, and land titles to obtain information about property boundaries in areas to be surveyed.

O*NET 29.1, task statements for SOC 17-1022.

Tools and technologies in demand

Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bentley MicroStation, Geographic information system GIS systems, Microsoft Office software, ESRI ArcGIS software, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word.

O*NET 29.1, flagged in demand or hot for this occupation. Useful as a screen, not as a checklist.

Is the talent actually in Virginia Beach?

This is a job zone four: considerable preparation needed occupation. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

That matters here, because 40.4% of Virginia Beach adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That is a workable pool, but the search will reach beyond the city line. Census ACS 5-year 2023, table S1501.

The average Virginia Beach commute runs 23.2 minutes, which is roughly how far your catchment reaches before candidates start saying no. 12.7% already work from home, so a fully onsite requirement here is competing against that.

How often do these jobs turn over?

In Virginia Beach city, architectural, engineering and related services employs 4,897 and turns over 5.4% a quarter, with 396 hires against 363 separations. Average earnings in that industry run $9,347 a month. Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2024 Q1, NAICS 5413.

That figure covers every occupation in the industry, not this role alone, so read it as the local churn rate rather than as a number about surveyors. It still tells you what you are hiring into: a low-churn market, where people do not move often and passive candidates are the whole game.

What does the search cost?

The fee is set by the seniority of the role, never by salary and never by location. Across all six tiers it runs $6,240 to $54,340 per search. A contingency firm hiring at this role's median would bill roughly $14,420 to $21,630 on the first year salary alone.

One owner runs the search from market map to signed offer. Searches typically fill in 23 to 35 days, which is a typical window rather than a promise, and the replacement guarantee runs 45 days at 50% off.

Price this search

Eight questions about the role. Your tier range appears on screen.

Hiring a surveyor somewhere else?

Same role, different market. The wage band moves with the metro.

Other architecture and engineering roles in Virginia Beach

Related

Virginia Beach is the largest of 4 Virginia cities in this dataset.