- The core task: maintain and develop positive business relationships with a customer's key personnel involved in, or directly relevant to, a logistics activity. It heads the task list in the next section.
- Typical entry education: bachelor's degree. 75% of survey respondents say a new hire needs a bachelor’s degree.
- Related work experience at entry: none. On-the-job training: none.
- 2 certifications apply: CLTD, CSCP. CLTD is from Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM).
- Median pay: $82,320. The 10th to 90th percentiles run $50,890 to $133,160.
- Projected change through 2035: 17.6%. Annual openings: about 26,600.
Logisticians coordinate how an organization moves and stores what it needs. A good share of the job faces outward: managing subcontractors and carriers, writing performance specifications, reviewing results against service agreements, and keeping the working relationship with the customer’s own logistics staff in good repair.
The rest is the plan behind it. Logisticians build the estimates and proposals that price a logistics job, then track whether it is running to those numbers.
The tasks O*NET rates most important for logisticians:
- Maintain and develop positive business relationships with a customer's key personnel involved in, or directly relevant to, a logistics activity.
- Develop an understanding of customers' needs and take actions to ensure that such needs are met.
- Manage subcontractor activities, reviewing proposals, developing performance specifications, and serving as liaisons between subcontractors and organizations.
- Develop proposals that include documentation for estimates.
- Review logistics performance with customers against targets, benchmarks, and service agreements.
- Direct availability and allocation of materials, supplies, and finished products.
Job titles in the same O*NET occupation: Client Services Administrator, Logistician, Production Planner and Supply Management Specialist. Source: O*NET
OnLine, 13-1081.00, read 2026-09-23.
Logisticians analyze and coordinate the system that moves a product from supplier to consumer, and the Handbook describes their remit as a product’s whole life cycle, from design to disposal. In practice that means directing where materials, supplies and products go, lining up demand against supply, and watching for risk.
Much of the job runs through software. Logisticians choose, integrate and implement the systems that plan and track product movement, then use them for the organization’s data and administrative work, procurement included. The rest is people: acting as the liaison between the organization and its suppliers or customers, and in some jobs training and managing clerical staff.
The Handbook is candid that the pace is fast. Logisticians are responsible for keeping operations on schedule and for solving problems quickly when they don’t stay there.
Main Responsibilities
- Oversee product acquisition and direct how materials, supplies and products are allocated
- Forecast demand and align it with supply
- Monitor and manage product risk
- Select, implement and run the business systems that track goods
- Review logistics functions and find areas to improve
- Serve as liaison with suppliers and customers, and propose ways to cut delivery cost or time
Who They Work With
Logisticians may work closely with, or under the supervision of, supply chain managers and project management specialists, according to the Handbook.
Suppliers and customers on the outside; inside, the purchasing, transportation, inventory and warehousing activities the Handbook says logisticians oversee.
Where And When They Work
Some work in a company’s own logistics department and others for firms that specialize in logistics, such as freight shippers. Most work full time, some more than forty hours, and manufacturing jobs can mean flexible hours, evening shifts or weekends. Some travel to plants and distribution centers.
The biggest employers of logisticians, by the Handbook's count:
manufacturing (22%), professional, scientific, and technical services (15%), federal government (14%), transportation and warehousing (11%) and wholesale trade (11%).
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Logisticians, What They Do and Work Environment. Employer shares are of the occupation's jobs in 2025, from Employment Projections data, and include the self-employed. Read 2026-09-23.
The median for logisticians is $82,320 a year. The middle half
earns $64,440 to $106,190, and the full range runs from $50,890 at the 10th percentile to $133,160 at the 90th, across
251,040 jobs. The logistician salary page breaks that down by state, metro area,
industry and employer type.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, national. Read 2026-09-23.
A bachelor’s degree is the usual entry point, in supply chain management, logistics, business or engineering. A master’s is optional for the role itself and matters more for logisticians aiming at management.
What BLS Says Entry Takes
Typical entry requirements for Logisticians, BLS Employment Projections | Typical entry education | Bachelor's degree |
|---|
| Related work experience | None |
|---|
| On-the-job training | None |
|---|
A bachelor’s degree, typically, and employers often prefer candidates with experience in a related occupation. The Handbook adds that in some cases work experience substitutes for the degree, and that Department of Defense acquisition roles require their own certifications.
Majors
Logistics and supply chain management, business, or a related field, with coursework in accounting, economics and procurement, according to the Handbook.
Degree Levels That Lead In
What O*NET's respondents in the occupation said a new hire needs:
Education a new hire needs, O*NET 13-1081.00, top three answers | Education Level | Share Of Respondents |
|---|
| Bachelor’s degree | 75% |
|---|
| High school diploma or equivalent | 8% |
|---|
| Post-secondary certificate | 8% |
|---|
Sources: BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2 (entry
requirements); O*NET OnLine, 13-1081.00, education section, top three
answers. The O*NET figures are survey responses from workers in the occupation, not a legal requirement.
CLTD is ASCM’s logistics credential and the closer fit. CSCP covers the wider supply chain and suits logisticians heading toward management.
Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM)
CLTD: Certified in Logistics, Transportation and Distribution
Logistics specifically: logistics strategy, demand and capacity, customer and order management, warehouse and fulfillment center management, inventory, transportation, global logistics, reverse logistics and risk, and network design.
- Who It Is For
- People whose work is the movement and storage of goods: transportation, warehousing and fulfillment, order management and logistics network design, where the make, deliver and return steps of the supply chain meet.
- Eligibility
- None. ASCM sets no education or experience requirement; anyone can buy an authorization to test.
- Exam
- One exam of 150 questions (130 scored, 20 unscored pretest) in 3.5 hours, scored from 200 to 350, with 300 or more passing. It is taken at a Pearson VUE center or online. The content runs across nine modules.
- Cost
- ASCM lists the exam at $1,100 for members with its certification upgrade and $1,530 for everyone else.
- Renewal
- Stays valid while you earn 75 professional development points every five years. Holders aged 62 or older can convert a current certification to a lifetime designation, which ends the five-year maintenance cycle.
Source: ASCM, CLTD page, exam details, FAQs and exam handbook, read 2026-09-23.
Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM)
CSCP: Certified Supply Chain Professional
The end-to-end supply chain: demand management and forecasting, global networks, sourcing, internal operations and inventory, forward and reverse logistics, supplier relationships, risk, and optimization, sustainability and technology.
- Who It Is For
- ASCM pitches it at people responsible for the supply chain end to end: sourcing strategy and supplier selection, inventory visibility, demand forecasting, and designing a network that scales.
- Eligibility
- None. ASCM sets no education or experience requirement; anyone can buy an authorization to test.
- Exam
- One exam of 150 questions (130 scored, 20 unscored pretest) in 3.5 hours, scored from 200 to 350, with 300 or more passing. It is taken at a Pearson VUE center or online. The content runs across eight modules.
- Cost
- ASCM lists the exam at $1,450 for members with its certification upgrade and $2,015 for everyone else.
- Renewal
- Stays valid while you earn 75 professional development points every five years. Holders aged 62 or older can convert a current certification to a lifetime designation, which ends the five-year maintenance cycle.
Source: ASCM, CSCP page, exam details, FAQs and exam handbook, read 2026-09-23.
The CSCP guide: the exam module by module, the full cost and how to keep it.
ASCM membership is optional, though members pay less. You buy an authorization to test, which expires six months after purchase (12 months when bought in a bundle), and ASCM recommends about 100 hours of study per exam. A candidate who fails must wait 14 full days before retaking the same exam.
Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, How to Become One; titles from
O*NET OnLine and the Handbook.
- Supply Chain Manager. The Handbook’s named advancement for experienced logisticians.
- Supply Chain Analyst. The same BLS occupation; O*NET files supply chain analysts as logistics analysts inside it.
- Procurement Specialist. Logisticians oversee purchasing among their activities and handle procurement data in their systems, so the work meets buying at the supplier.
- Operations Research Analyst. The more quantitative neighbor: the Handbook lists overseeing the supply chain among the decisions operations research analysts support.
- Freight Forwarder. Forwarders execute the international shipments logisticians plan.
The qualities the Handbook names as important for logisticians:
- Communication. Getting information across to suppliers and customers.
- Critical thinking. Developing and adjusting plans that make the operation more efficient.
- Customer service. Understanding what customers need when moving their goods and equipment.
- Organization. Keeping detailed records and many responsibilities straight at speed.
- Problem-solving. Handling delivery problems and other surprises and adjusting the plan.
O*NET lists the software the occupation uses and flags the technologies employers name most often in their job postings. For
logisticians, the ones it marks as in demand are Microsoft Outlook, SAP software, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel.
Source: O*NET OnLine, 13-1081.00, Software Skills. "In demand" and "hot" are
O*NET's own flags, based on how often employers name the technology in job postings. Read 2026-09-23.
BLS projects employment of logisticians to grow 17.6% over 2025 to 2035,
from 255,100 to 300,000 jobs. That is faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations.
BLS expects about 26,600 openings a year. Of those, 6,200 (23%)
replace people leaving the labor force, 15,900 (60%) replace people
moving to other occupations, and 4,500 (17%) are new jobs. The
logistician salary page sets out what BLS says is driving demand.
Sources: BLS Employment Projections, 2025-35;
EP Table 1.10. New jobs is total openings minus
separations. Read 2026-09-23.
What Degree Do You Need To Be A Logistician?
BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry education for logisticians. In O*NET's survey of the occupation, 75% of respondents said a new hire needs a bachelor’s degree, and 8% said a high school diploma or equivalent.
How Long Does It Take To Become A Logistician?
BLS lists no related work experience as typical for entry, so the degree is the main time cost.
How Much Does A Logistician Make?
The median for logisticians is $82,320 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), with the 10th to 90th percentile running $50,890 to $133,160.
Is Logistician A Good Career?
On the federal numbers: a median of $82,320, and BLS projects the occupation to grow 17.6% from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 26,600 openings a year.
Is Logistics A Stressful Job?
It can be. The Handbook says logisticians’ work is fast paced and may be stressful because they have to keep operations on schedule and solve problems quickly, and some jobs involve nonstandard hours.
Can Military Experience Lead To A Logistician Job?
The Handbook names military service as one of the ways people gain the logistics experience employers prefer, alongside support roles and internships.
Do Logisticians Need A Certification?
It is not required, according to the Handbook, though certification shows competence and broad logistics knowledge. Department of Defense acquisition roles are the exception: the Handbook says they require certifications from DAU, the department’s acquisition university.
Pay for logisticians by state, metro area and industry.
Works the data behind the supply chain: tracking product flow, monitoring carriers and turning logistics records into decisions.
Programs read from each school’s own page, with tuition where the school states it.
Programs read from each school’s own page, with tuition where the school states it.
