Locksmith Job Description: Duties, Licensing, Template & Pay (2026)
Locksmithing is one of the smallest skilled trades in the country — about 18,800 people, with roughly 1,700 openings a year — and it is shrinking while the work becomes more electronic. This page has a locksmith job description template you can copy, the licensing question, and why every realistic hire is somebody you train.
What a locksmith does
The trade has changed more than its name suggests. A modern commercial locksmith spends as much time on access control and door hardware as on keys, and a posting written around picking locks will attract the wrong person.
Mechanical lock work. Rekeying and masterkeying, cutting keys, servicing mortise and cylindrical locks, repairing and replacing deadbolts, panic hardware, closers and exit devices.
Door hardware. Installing and adjusting commercial doors, frames, hinges, closers and thresholds, and diagnosing why a door does not latch — which is a mechanical problem more often than a lock problem.
Electronic access control. Electric strikes and maglocks, card and fob readers, keypads, smart locks, wiring and low-voltage work, programming and integration. This is the growth half of the trade and increasingly where the money is.
Automotive. Key cutting and transponder programming, key fobs, ignition work and lockouts — a distinct speciality with its own equipment and databases.
Safes. Servicing, opening, combination changes, drilling and repair. Another distinct speciality.
Emergency service. Lockouts and after-hours callouts, often in the middle of the night, with identity verification obligations before opening anything.
Locksmith job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for a commercial locksmith and door hardware company; the customization section covers residential service, automotive, institutional and access control roles.
Job title
Locksmith [/ Commercial Locksmith / Door Hardware & Access Control Technician] — [Company], [City, ST] — [$00.00–$00.00/hr] — Company van
Summary
[Company name] serves [commercial, institutional and residential] customers across [territory]. You will run [4–6] service calls a day from a company van — rekeying and masterkeying, door hardware, panic and exit devices, and [electronic access control] — plus scheduled work on [school, healthcare and property management] accounts. Hours are [days and hours], [00] a week, [with a paid on-call rotation of 1 week in [0]]. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] an hour depending on experience [plus on-call and call-out pay]. [Van, tools, key machines and training provided.] [No locksmith experience? If you have hardware, electrical, low-voltage or mechanical background, we will train you and pay for your [state] licence.]
Responsibilities
- Rekey, masterkey and service mechanical locks; cut keys and maintain key records securely
- Install, adjust and repair commercial door hardware — closers, panic devices, exit alarms, hinges
- Diagnose door and frame problems affecting latching and alignment
- [Install, wire, program and troubleshoot electronic access control: electric strikes, maglocks, readers and keypads]
- Design and maintain masterkey systems and key control records for [institutional accounts]
- [Open and service safes; change combinations]
- [Cut and program automotive keys, transponders and fobs]
- Respond to lockouts and after-hours emergency calls, verifying authority before opening
- Complete service documentation, parts and billing in [system] on site
Requirements
- [State locksmith licence — or eligibility to obtain one; we pay for it]
- [0]+ years in locksmithing [or transferable hardware, low-voltage, electrical or mechanical experience]
- Valid driver's licence and clean MVR — you will be insured on a company vehicle
- Able to pass a criminal background check — [required for licensing and customer access]
- Able to lift [50] lbs, work from a ladder and be on your feet
Preferred
- [ALOA certification — Registered or Certified Professional Locksmith]
- [Access control, low-voltage or alarm experience]
- [Automotive key and transponder programming]
- [Safe servicing and manipulation]
- [Institutional masterkey system design]
Pay and benefits
- [$00.00–$00.00] an hour based on experience and certification, [overtime after 40]
- [Paid on-call rotation and a [0]-hour call-out minimum]
- [Company van, fuel card, key machines and tools provided]
- [We pay for your state licence, ALOA certification and manufacturer training]
- [Health, dental and vision from day [00]], [401(k) with match], [PTO and paid holidays]
- [Boot and uniform allowance]
How to apply
[Apply here / text LOCK to 00000 / call [name] at [number]]. We reply within [24] hours.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
With 18,800 people nationally and about 1,700 openings a year, in most metros there are a handful of experienced locksmiths and they all know each other. A posting that filters for existing locksmiths is, in practice, a posting aimed at almost nobody.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Licensing | Required in some states and not others, and sometimes at city level. Know your jurisdiction, state it plainly, and say whether you sponsor and pay for the licence. Where licensing exists it usually requires a criminal background check, which is worth naming so nobody is surprised. |
| Background check | Legitimately essential — this trade has access to buildings and key systems. Say what it covers and be clear about what is and is not disqualifying. |
| Experience | The place where most of these postings go wrong. Almost nobody trains as a locksmith any more, so requiring locksmith experience narrows an already tiny pool to nearly zero. Hardware installers, low-voltage and alarm technicians, electricians and mechanically capable maintenance technicians all convert well. |
| Access control skills | Where the trade is going and where the shortage is sharpest. Low-voltage and alarm technicians already have most of it. If your work is access-control-heavy, recruit from that audience explicitly. |
| Tools and key machines | Expensive and specialised. Say that you provide them, because a candidate coming from another trade cannot supply their own and may assume they need to. |
| The van | Say whether it goes home, whether there is a fuel card, and whether the paid day starts at home. Service technicians ask this early. |
| On-call | Lockouts happen at 2am. Name the rotation, the call-out minimum and the pay, because unquantified on-call in an emergency trade is read as unlimited. |
| Certification | ALOA certification is the recognised credential and works far better as an offer than a filter. Paying for it plus manufacturer training is a strong retention lever in a trade where people take pride in their skill. |
Locksmith duties, written for a posting
Say what the work actually is. Commercial hardware, access control, residential service, automotive or safes — and the approximate mix. A technician reads the mix and knows whether their skills fit.
Say who the customers are. Property management, schools, healthcare, retail chains, or homeowners on emergency calls. The customer base decides the pace and the professionalism required.
Be explicit about training. In a declining trade with no apprenticeship pipeline, the training offer is the product you are selling to a candidate from an adjacent field.
Name the on-call arrangement in the responsibilities rather than the small print. This trade has genuine after-hours demands and hiding them produces short tenures.
How to customize it by specialty
Commercial and institutional
The template above. Masterkey systems, door hardware, panic devices, key control for schools and hospitals. Steady scheduled work with contract accounts. Lead with the account base and the training.
Access control and low voltage
Electric strikes, maglocks, readers, controllers, wiring and integration. This is where demand is growing and where alarm and low-voltage technicians convert most easily. Pay accordingly and name the platforms you install.
Residential service
Rekeys, lockouts, smart locks and hardware upgrades. Higher call volume, shorter jobs, much more customer interaction and more emergency work. Say the after-hours expectation plainly.
Automotive
Transponder programming, fobs, ignition work, roadside lockouts. Specialised equipment and subscription databases, and often a separate business line. Say whether the role is automotive-only or mixed.
Safes and vaults
A craft speciality within a small trade: servicing, manipulation, drilling and repair. Rare enough that the realistic approach is developing someone internally.
In-house institutional locksmith
Universities, hospitals, school districts and large property portfolios employ their own. Predictable hours, no sales pressure, benefits and pension — a genuinely different offer from field service work, and one worth leading with if that is what you have. See the maintenance technician job description for the adjacent in-house role.
What it costs to reach locksmiths and access control technicians on social
Technician and mechanic roles are our largest single role family: across 145 campaigns in the 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark the median cost per applicant was $13.41, with a middle half of $7.40 to $23.58, a blended figure of $8.35 and a 16% apply rate. The wider Skilled Trades and Field Service sector — 335 campaigns — ran an $11.89 median at 18%.
What moves that number is not the bid. Across all 891 campaigns, campaigns converting under 10% of clicks paid a median $53.77 an applicant and those over 20% paid $4.41. The second lever is frequency: past three impressions in a month the median cost per applicant roughly doubles, and a shop's realistic catchment is a short drive, so a steady small budget beats a burst. For this trade specifically, target low-voltage, alarm and door hardware audiences rather than searching for locksmiths — the audience of existing locksmiths in a metro is too small to run a campaign against.
Hiring service technicians? See the maintenance technician, field service technician, electrician and security guard job descriptions.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone by somebody who has other options at a similar rate. It needs the rate, that you train and pay for licensing, the van and tools, and the on-call rotation — in the first three lines. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words, and for a role like this the shorter end works.
Three or four questions on the form, then call the same day. Every extra field costs completions, and the technician you want has applied somewhere else this morning.
What locksmiths earn
Locksmiths and safe repairers had a median of $24.68 an hour, $51,320 a year in 2025, across about 18,800 people with roughly 1,700 openings a year, and employment projected to decline by 1% or more through 2034.
| Comparison role | Median pay (2025) | Employed | Openings per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical/electronics repairers, commercial and industrial | $35.62/hr · $74,090 | 61,100 | ~4,700 |
| Locksmiths and safe repairers | $24.68/hr · $51,320 | 18,800 | ~1,700 |
| Maintenance and repair workers, general | $23.84/hr · $49,590 | 1,629,700 | ~159,800 |
| Security guards | $18.28/hr · $38,020 | 1,262,100 | ~161,000 |
The pay is respectable — about eighty cents an hour above general maintenance work — but the number that should shape your hiring is 18,800, not $24.68.
This is a trade of fewer than nineteen thousand people, shrinking, with about 1,700 openings a year nationally. Spread across the country that is a handful of vacancies per metro per year. There is no meaningful pool of available locksmiths to advertise to, and campaigns built on the assumption that there is will spend money reaching nobody.
The workable strategy is the row below. There are 1.63 million general maintenance workers and a large population of low-voltage and alarm technicians, and access control — the growing half of locksmithing — is much closer to their existing skills than to traditional key work. Recruit from there, pay for the licence and the ALOA certification, and train. Every locksmith business that is growing is doing some version of this, and the posting is where the offer gets made.
Frequently asked questions
What does a locksmith do?
A modern locksmith rekeys and masterkeys mechanical locks, cuts keys, installs and repairs commercial door hardware including closers and panic devices, diagnoses door and frame problems, and increasingly installs, wires and programs electronic access control such as electric strikes, maglocks, card readers and keypads. Specialists also cut and program automotive keys and transponders, or service and open safes. Emergency lockout work is common and often after hours.
Do locksmiths need a licence?
It depends on the state and sometimes the city — some jurisdictions require a locksmith licence with a criminal background check, and others have no requirement at all. Employers should state their jurisdiction's rule plainly and say whether they sponsor and pay for the licence, since paying for it is one of the few ways to recruit into a trade with almost no training pipeline.
How much do locksmiths make?
Locksmiths and safe repairers had a median of $24.68 an hour, or $51,320 a year, in 2025 — about eighty cents above general maintenance and repair work. Access control and electronic security skills push earnings toward the $35.62 median for commercial and industrial electronics repairers, which is where the trade's growth and its pay upside now sit.
How do you hire a locksmith when there are none available?
By hiring from adjacent trades. There are about 18,800 locksmiths nationally with roughly 1,700 openings a year, which is a handful per metro, so campaigns aimed at existing locksmiths reach almost nobody. Low-voltage and alarm technicians, door hardware installers, electricians and mechanically strong maintenance technicians all convert well, particularly for access control work. Pay for the licence and the training.
What should a locksmith job description include?
Which specialty the job is and the approximate mix, the customer base, the hourly rate, whether a company van goes home and whether tools and key machines are provided, the licensing requirement and whether you pay for it, the background check, the on-call rotation with its call-out minimum and pay, and explicitly that you will train candidates from adjacent trades.
Is locksmithing a growing trade?
The traditional mechanical side is not — federal projections show employment declining by 1% or more through 2034 as mechanical keys are replaced. The electronic access control side is growing, which is why the realistic future of the trade is door hardware plus low-voltage security work, and why employers should describe those skills in postings rather than leading with keys and lock picking.
Do locksmiths work nights?
Emergency lockout work happens at all hours, so most locksmith roles that include residential or emergency service carry an on-call rotation. Because the demand is genuinely unpredictable, candidates treat vague on-call language as a warning sign. Naming the rotation, the call-out minimum and the on-call pay converts far better than leaving it unstated.
What certification do locksmiths have?
ALOA, the Associated Locksmiths of America, is the recognised certifying body, with Registered and Certified Professional Locksmith designations. Manufacturer training on specific hardware and access control platforms is also valuable. Both work considerably better as something an employer offers and pays for than as a requirement that filters an already tiny applicant pool.
Other job description templates
Hiring locksmiths?
There are 1,700 openings a year in the whole country. Nobody is hiring locksmiths — they are training low-voltage technicians.
Wage, employment, projection and task descriptions for locksmiths and safe repairers (SOC 49-9094) and the comparison occupations: O*NET OnLine and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wage data and BLS employment projections. Locksmith licensing requirements vary by state and municipality; confirm locally before writing licensing into a posting. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.