Surgical Technologist Job Description: Duties, Requirements, Template & Pay (2026)
A surgical technologist sets up the sterile field, anticipates the surgeon's next instrument, and holds the count that keeps a case safe. This page has a surgical technologist job description template you can copy, the certification lines that belong in it, what technologists are paid by setting, and why the call rotation is the fact that decides whether experienced scrub techs apply.
What a surgical technologist does
The job is usually summarised as "passes instruments", which is roughly like describing an air traffic controller as someone who talks on the radio. A surgical technologist — scrub tech, in most operating rooms — prepares the room and the sterile field, checks and assembles instrumentation and equipment for the specific procedure, gowns and gloves the team, maintains the sterile field throughout, passes instruments and supplies with the case rather than on request, manages specimens, and performs the surgical count with the circulating nurse.
The skill that separates a good scrub from an adequate one is anticipation: knowing the surgeon, the procedure and the step well enough to have the next instrument in hand. That is specialty knowledge, and it is why service line matters more than years of experience in this role. A technologist who has scrubbed orthopaedics for six years is not interchangeable with one who has scrubbed cardiac.
Which brings up the distinction that belongs in every posting. BLS reports surgical assistants and surgical technologists together but they are separate jobs with different scope and pay — assistants have a larger intraoperative role and earn a median of $80,210 in physicians' offices against $65,020 for technologists in hospitals. If your role is a first-assist role, title it that way; if it is not, do not imply it.
Surgical technologist 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 hospital operating room; the customization section covers ambulatory surgery centers, specialty services, labour and delivery, and first-assist roles.
Job title
Surgical Technologist (Scrub Tech) — [Service line: Orthopedics / Cardiac / General / Labor & Delivery], [Facility name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Facility name] is hiring a surgical technologist for our [00]-OR [hospital / surgery center] in [city]. We run [00] cases a day across [service lines], and this role sits primarily in [service line]. Shifts are [8s / 10s / 12s], [days], with [call: [0] shifts a month, [weekend rotation], paid at [$00.00] an hour standby plus time-and-a-half when called in / no call]. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] an hour depending on experience and certification, plus [shift and call differentials] and [a sign-on bonus of [$0,000]].
Responsibilities
- Prepare the operating room: equipment, instrumentation, supplies and implants for the scheduled case
- Set up and maintain the sterile field; gown and glove the surgical team
- Pass instruments, sutures and supplies, anticipating each step of the procedure
- Perform the surgical count with the circulating nurse at every required point
- Handle, label and manage specimens correctly
- Prepare and pass medications on the sterile field per policy, with verification
- Assist with patient positioning, prepping and draping
- Break down the room, manage instrument decontamination hand-off and turn over between cases
- Restock, check and maintain supply levels, and flag missing or failing instrumentation
Requirements
- Graduate of an accredited surgical technology program [or equivalent military training]
- [CST or TS-C certification required / preferred — we pay for the exam]
- Current BLS
- Able to stand for long cases, lift [50] lbs and assist with patient positioning
- Able to take part in the [call rotation] and work [weekends and holidays] as scheduled
- [State registration where required]
Preferred
- [00] years scrubbing [service line]
- Robotics experience [da Vinci or equivalent]
- Experience with [vendor-supported implants / endoscopy / open heart / trauma]
- [Certified First Assistant (CSFA/CFA) for the first-assist version of this role]
- [Spanish and English]
Pay and benefits
- [$00.00–$00.00] an hour with [evening, night, weekend and call differentials stated as numbers]
- [Sign-on bonus of [$0,000] with a [00]-month commitment], [relocation support]
- [We pay for CST certification, renewal and continuing education]
- [Health, dental and vision from day [00]], [retirement with match], [PTO]
- [Cross-training into additional service lines, paid], [scrubs provided]
How to apply
[Apply here / text SCRUBTECH to 00000 / call [name] at [number]]. We reply to every application within [24] hours and can arrange an OR tour before you decide.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
Around 8,600 openings a year across surgical assistants and technologists, 71% of technologists working in hospitals, and a training pipeline that produces a predictable number of graduates a year: this is a small market where almost every candidate is currently scrubbing somewhere else.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Accredited program graduation | The standard entry route, alongside equivalent military training — which is worth naming explicitly in the posting, because military-trained surgical techs are a real and under-recruited population. |
| CST or TS-C certification | BLS notes certification may be beneficial for finding a job and that some employers require it. Some states and many facilities require it outright. If yours does not, saying "certification preferred, we pay for the exam" opens the posting to recent graduates who have not yet tested. |
| Years of experience | Ask for the service line rather than the years. "Has scrubbed total joints" is a sharper requirement than "3+ years", and it lets a strong technologist from a different specialty know exactly what the gap is — and whether you will cross-train. |
| Service line | State it in the title. Technologists search and self-identify by specialty, and a general posting reaches fewer of the people who would be good at the actual job. |
| Call rotation | Not a requirement so much as the decisive fact. Call is the leading reason technologists change employers, and a posting that omits it is assumed to have a heavy one. State the number of shifts, the pay for standby and for callback, and how the weekend rotation works. |
| Robotics | A preference worth naming, and an excellent recruiting line when paired with paid training. Technologists actively seek robotics experience because it travels. |
| Physical requirements | Concrete: long cases on your feet, lifting, positioning. Standard and fine. |
Surgical technologist duties, written for a posting
The duties list should tell a technologist what the room is like. Give them the operational facts: number of ORs, cases a day, which service lines, whether the role floats or sits in a specialty, what the turnover expectation is, and whether there are dedicated turnover or sterile processing staff.
That last point is quietly important. In facilities without dedicated support, the scrub tech does instrument decontamination hand-off, restocking and room turnover on top of scrubbing. That is legitimate work and it should be in the posting, because discovering it in week one after leaving a facility that had a turnover team is a common cause of an early resignation.
Keep the list to eight or nine lines, order it by how much of the day each takes, and include the count and specimen handling explicitly. They are the parts of the job with the highest consequence, and naming them signals that the facility takes them seriously.
How to customize it by setting
Hospital operating room
Lead with OR count, daily case volume and the service lines, then the shift and the call rotation. Say whether the role is specialty-assigned or floats. If you cross-train and pay for it, put that in the summary — it is one of the strongest retention and recruitment lines available in this role.
Ambulatory surgery center
The honest pitch is the schedule: predictable days, no nights, little or no call, and a defined case mix. BLS puts outpatient care centers at a $64,670 median for technologists against $65,020 in hospitals — essentially the same pay for a materially better schedule, which is a far better advertisement than most ASCs write. Say the case types and the daily volume.
Specialty services: cardiac, trauma, transplant, neuro
These roles recruit on the medicine and on the team. Name the service, the case complexity and the call structure, and be honest about the intensity. The candidates who want this work are specific and few, and a general posting will not reach them.
Labour and delivery
Often overlooked as a distinct posting. Scrubbing caesarean sections is a different rhythm — long stretches of readiness punctuated by urgency — and it attracts technologists who want hospital work without a heavy elective schedule. Say the unit's delivery volume.
Surgical first assistant
A different role, a different credential and a different pay band. If you are hiring a first assistant, title it that way, name the credential you require, and use the assistant pay data — a median of $80,210 in physicians' offices and $76,740 in hospitals — rather than technologist figures.
What it costs to reach surgical technologists on social
Allied health is the second-most expensive role family in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark: across 23 allied health and imaging campaigns the median cost per applicant was $54.37, with a middle half spanning $10.27 to $106.51, a blended figure of $25.49, a 10% apply rate and a 1.01% click-through rate. Across the wider healthcare and senior living sector — 553 campaigns — the median was $15.42 at a 16% apply rate, with a $25.18 CPM, the highest of any sector we run.
Those are the economics of advertising to a small credentialed population that is already employed, and they change how the budget should be spent. Across all 891 campaigns, the apply rate moves cost per applicant from $53.77 under 10% to $4.41 over 20% — a bigger swing than any bid adjustment. And because the local pool of scrub techs is small, frequency builds quickly: past three impressions a month, the median cost per applicant roughly doubles. The correct response to an expensive allied-health campaign is almost never more budget; it is a more specific offer — service line, call commitment, differentials as numbers, cross-training paid.
If the vacancy is one of several across the OR and the floors, see healthcare recruiting strategies and healthcare staffing costs for what agency coverage is costing against a permanent hire.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone between cases by somebody who already scrubs. It needs the service line, the shift, the call commitment and the rate, in that order, and it should say whether certification is required. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words.
Keep the form to four questions: certification held, service lines scrubbed, call availability, start date. At a median of $54 an applicant in this role family, every additional form field is expensive in a way it simply is not for a general hourly role.
What surgical technologists earn, by setting
BLS reports surgical assistants and technologists together at a median of $31.10 an hour, $64,700 a year in May 2025, and separately by industry. Read them separately, because the two roles are paid very differently.
| Role and industry | Median annual pay (May 2025) | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Surgical technologists — hospitals | $65,020 | 71% of 118,400 |
| Surgical technologists — outpatient care centers | $64,670 | 10% |
| Surgical technologists — offices of physicians | — | 11% |
| Surgical assistants — offices of physicians | $80,210 | 16% of 24,400 |
| Surgical assistants — hospitals | $76,740 | 38% |
| Surgical assistants — outpatient care centers | $70,480 | — |
Two things follow for a hospital or surgery center writing a posting. First, the pay gap between hospital and outpatient technologist work is negligible — about $350 a year at the median — so an ambulatory surgery center with no call is competing on schedule from a position of strength and should say so. Second, the route from technologist to first assistant is worth roughly $12,000 to $15,000 a year, which makes a facility that supports first-assist credentialing genuinely distinctive.
Employment across both roles is projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 8,600 openings a year. Small pool, steady demand, and a candidate set that is almost entirely employed: the posting's job is not to attract applications in general but to give one specific technologist a reason to move.
Frequently asked questions
What does a surgical technologist do?
A surgical technologist prepares the operating room and the instrumentation for each case, sets up and maintains the sterile field, gowns and gloves the surgical team, passes instruments and supplies while anticipating the steps of the procedure, performs the surgical count with the circulating nurse, manages specimens, assists with positioning, prepping and draping, and turns the room over between cases.
What is the difference between a surgical technologist and a surgical assistant?
Scope and pay. A surgical technologist scrubs the case — sterile field, instrumentation, counts and anticipation. A surgical assistant has a larger intraoperative role assisting the surgeon directly and requires additional credentialing. BLS reports them together but the pay differs substantially: surgical assistants earn a median of $80,210 in physicians' offices and $76,740 in hospitals, against $65,020 for technologists in hospitals.
What qualifications does a surgical technologist need?
A postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education, usually through an accredited surgical technology program, and equivalent military training is widely accepted. BLS notes that certification may be beneficial and that some employers require it; the recognised credentials are the CST and the TS-C. Some states also have their own registration requirements.
How much do surgical technologists make?
BLS reports surgical assistants and technologists together at a median of $31.10 an hour, or $64,700 a year, in May 2025. For technologists specifically, hospitals pay a median of $65,020 and outpatient care centers $64,670. Call pay and shift differentials often add meaningfully to the base rate, which is why a posting should state them as numbers.
Do surgical technologists need to be certified?
Not universally — it depends on the state and the employer. Certification is widely preferred and often required, and an employer who does not require it can widen the pool significantly by saying "preferred, and we pay for the exam", which reaches recent graduates who have completed an accredited program but not yet tested.
What should a surgical technologist job description include?
The service line in the title, OR count and daily case volume, whether the role is specialty-assigned or floats, the shift pattern, the call rotation with standby and callback pay stated as numbers, an hourly range with differentials, eight or nine responsibilities including the count and specimen handling, whether there is dedicated turnover support, and the certification position.
Why is the call rotation so important in a scrub tech posting?
Because it is the most common reason technologists change employers, and because its financial value is large and variable. A posting that omits it is assumed to have a heavy rotation. Stating the number of call shifts a month, the weekend structure, the standby rate and the callback rate lets a candidate compare your offer accurately — which, in a market where everyone pays close to the same base, is usually to your advantage.
Why is it hard to hire surgical technologists?
Small pool, steady demand and near-universal employment: about 118,400 technologists nationally with roughly 8,600 openings a year across the occupation, 71% of them concentrated in hospitals. In our campaign data the allied health family costs a median $54.37 per applicant at a 10% apply rate. The way out is specificity in the offer — service line, call, differentials, paid cross-training — rather than more budget.
Other job description templates
Hiring surgical technologists?
The description is the document. Giving one scrub tech at another facility a concrete reason to move is the job. That is what we run.
Pay, employment and outlook figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Surgical Assistants and Technologists (May 2025 wage data, 2025–35 projections). Cost-per-applicant, apply-rate and frequency figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.