Top 12 Commercial Diver Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive world of commercial diving, the skills you spotlight can tilt decisions your way. Hiring managers want proof you can work safely, think clearly under pressure, and get tough jobs done in hard water. The list below zeroes in on 12 capabilities that routinely matter offshore, inshore, and everywhere in between.
Commercial Diver Skills
- Underwater Welding
- Hyperbaric Welding
- SCUBA Certification
- NDT Inspection (Non-Destructive Testing)
- ROV Operation (Remotely Operated Vehicle)
- HAZMAT Handling
- Hydraulic Tools Proficiency
- Dive Medicine Knowledge
- Saturation Diving
- Commercial Diving Equipment Maintenance
- Underwater Photography
- Dive Planning Software
1. Underwater Welding
Underwater welding brings construction and repair beneath the surface: joining metals on ships, piles, risers, locks, and more, using power sources and consumables adapted for wet or dry habitats.
Why It's Important
It keeps critical infrastructure alive and earning—patching cracks, replacing sections, restoring integrity—without hauling assets topside. Faster turnarounds, lowered downtime, fewer costly lifts.
How to Improve Underwater Welding Skills
Tighten safety: Standardize pre-dive checks, isolation/lockout, hot work permits, gas monitoring, and emergency drills aligned with IMCA/ADCI expectations.
Use the right kit: Choose robust power sources, stingers, electrodes, and habitats suited to salinity, temperature, and current. Maintain leads and connections religiously.
Advance credentials: Pursue recognized underwater welding training and procedure qualification records (PQRs). Refresh technique frequently—bead-on-plate, fillets, position work.
Stay dive-fit: Strength, endurance, thermal management, and stress control matter when your grip and arc length decide quality.
Communicate clearly: Practice voice comms, line signals, and team briefs so surface support and welders work like one body.
How to Display Underwater Welding Skills on Your Resume
2. Hyperbaric Welding
Hyperbaric welding happens under pressure. In habitats (dry) or straight in the water column (wet), welders work at depth with procedures designed for gas density, visibility, and temperature shifts.
Why It's Important
It enables structural work at working depth, avoids refloat operations, and delivers repairs where they’re needed most—on pipelines, jackets, hulls—without pulling assets off the job.
How to Improve Hyperbaric Welding Skills
Specialized training: Maintain accredited commercial diver certification, then layer hyperbaric welding modules and procedure qualifications on top.
Reliable equipment: Pressure-rated habitats, stable power delivery, proper consumables, and redundant life-support systems—maintained, inspected, logged.
Procedure control: Follow welding procedures tailored for pressure and gas mix. Track heat input and arc stability; verify with NDT.
Risk management: Perform job hazard analyses and contingency drills for fires, contamination, loss of comms, and habitat integrity issues.
Documentation: Record parameters, defects, repairs, and test results. Good notes make repeatable quality possible.
How to Display Hyperbaric Welding Skills on Your Resume
3. SCUBA Certification
SCUBA certification verifies competence with self-contained breathing apparatus. In commercial work, most operations require surface-supplied and accredited commercial diver qualifications; however, SCUBA skills can support certain inspection or confined tasks where permitted and risk-assessed.
Why It's Important
It demonstrates foundational diving skills, safe watermanship, and emergency readiness. For commercial roles, it’s a stepping stone—useful when paired with formal commercial diver training and surface-supplied experience.
How to Improve SCUBA Certification Skills
Climb the training ladder: Progress from entry-level to advanced and rescue-level courses; add specialties that map to work tasks (navigation, drysuit, limited visibility).
Pursue commercial accreditation: Complete an accredited commercial diving program (e.g., ACDE/ADCI standards) emphasizing surface-supplied systems, tools, and job safety analysis.
Log real dives: Build bottom time in varied conditions—cold, current, low viz—to strengthen control and situational awareness.
Medical and fitness: Maintain commercial dive medical clearance and conditioning appropriate for heavy gear and long shifts.
Keep skills fresh: Regularly practice emergency drills, buoyancy, and equipment checks. Skills fade; rehearsals keep them sharp.
How to Display SCUBA Certification Skills on Your Resume
4. NDT Inspection (Non-Destructive Testing)
NDT in diving applies techniques such as visual, ultrasonic, MPI, eddy current, and thickness gauging to assess condition without harming assets. Essential for life-extension and integrity management.
Why It's Important
It spots defects before they turn ugly. You keep pipelines flowing, pilings sound, and hulls in class—all while minimizing downtime.
How to Improve NDT Inspection (Non-Destructive Testing) Skills
Formal qualifications: Train and certify to recognized NDT levels for methods you’ll use underwater. Theory plus wet application.
Modern tools: Learn phased array, digital radiography workflows, and reliable A-scan interpretation for subsea conditions.
Method selection: Match technique to material, geometry, coating, and access. One tool rarely answers everything.
Reporting discipline: Deliver clear defect sizing, photos/video, GPS or structural references, and acceptance criteria against relevant standards.
Safety first: Integrate NDT with dive plans—tether management, comms, and exposure limits—so inspection doesn’t outpace safe operations.
How to Display NDT Inspection (Non-Destructive Testing) Skills on Your Resume
5. ROV Operation (Remotely Operated Vehicle)
ROVs extend reach. They scout, measure, manipulate, and film where sending a diver would be slow, risky, or simply impossible.
Why It's Important
They cut exposure, speed surveys, and complement diver work with eyes-on-target precision. Smart pairing: ROV for recon and monitoring, divers for complex hands-on tasks.
How to Improve ROV Operation (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Skills
Structured training: Simulator time plus real-sea hours—navigation, station-keeping, tether management, and task payload proficiency.
Sensors that matter: Upgrade cameras, lighting, multibeam/sonar, and positioning so data is crisp and usable the first time.
Maintenance rigor: Pre-dive checklists, connector care, leak tests, spares on hand. Prevent the preventable.
Clean comms: Low-latency talkback between pilot, supervisor, and dive team. Agreed callouts. No muddled instructions.
Data discipline: Standardize file naming, timecodes, and report templates so findings flow straight into engineering decisions.
Procedural safety: Define diver–ROV separation rules, umbilical routing, and emergency retrieval steps.
How to Display ROV Operation (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Skills on Your Resume
6. HAZMAT Handling
HAZMAT handling covers recognition, control, and disposal of hazardous substances underwater—fuels, chemicals, contaminated sediments—with the right PPE, containment, and decon steps.
Why It's Important
It protects divers, teams, and waterways. One mistake can spiral into health issues, regulatory trouble, and environmental damage.
How to Improve HAZMAT Handling Skills
Training cadence: Refresh HAZWOPER-type training, spill response drills, and site-specific procedures regularly.
PPE mastery: Know your ensemble—suits, gloves, barriers, comms, and decon. Choose materials compatible with the hazard.
Plan the job: Conduct thorough risk assessments, air monitoring (where applicable), exclusion zones, and waste handling routes before splash.
Equipment integrity: Inspect and maintain diving systems and HAZMAT tools; log every check. No compromises.
Coordination: Align with regulators and clients on reporting, sampling plans, and documentation standards.
How to Display HAZMAT Handling Skills on Your Resume
7. Hydraulic Tools Proficiency
Hydraulic tools power the subsea toolbox—grinders, impact wrenches, drills, shears. Mastery means safe setup, operation, troubleshooting, and tidy stowing in ugly conditions.
Why It's Important
Productivity and safety hinge on it. Clean cuts, accurate holes, controlled torque—done right, projects move. Done wrong, injuries and rework bloom.
How to Improve Hydraulic Tools Proficiency Skills
Know the system: Understand flow, pressure, and return. Read schematics. Spot cavitation, heat, and restriction early.
Hands-on practice: Controlled environment drills before real jobs—tool swaps, hose management, and body positioning.
Follow procedures: Use correct pressures, fittings, guards, and torque specs. Verify quick-connect integrity every time.
Stay current: Track new tools, safer couplings, and ergonomic improvements that reduce strain and downtime.
Safety habits: Lockout energy sources, protect lines from pinch points, and maintain stable work platforms.
Manufacturer guidance: Apply service intervals and troubleshooting trees exactly as written.
How to Display Hydraulic Tools Proficiency Skills on Your Resume
8. Dive Medicine Knowledge
Dive medicine spans physiology under pressure, gas loading, thermal stress, barotrauma, DCS, oxygen toxicity, and emergency care specific to the underwater workspace.
Why It's Important
It keeps people alive and fit for task. Early recognition and decisive response prevent incidents from becoming tragedies.
How to Improve Dive Medicine Knowledge Skills
Targeted education: Take dive medicine modules and refreshers; pursue DMT-level training where roles demand it.
Read and review: Study hyperbaric medicine texts and current guidance; discuss case studies during toolbox talks.
Drill regularly: Run scenarios—lost diver, DCS symptoms, squeeze injuries, oxygen administration, evacuation timelines.
Maintain certifications: Keep First Aid/CPR/O2 provider current; document competencies and equipment checks.
Health monitoring: Track hydration, thermal protection, fatigue, and post-dive symptoms. Encourage speaking up early.
How to Display Dive Medicine Knowledge Skills on Your Resume
9. Saturation Diving
Saturation diving holds divers at pressure in a habitat, moving them to depth via bell and decompressing once at the end. It unlocks long work windows on deep jobs while controlling DCS risk.
Why It's Important
Deep field work—construction, inspection, tie-ins—demands endurance at depth. Sat diving makes it practical and safer than repeated bounce profiles.
How to Improve Saturation Diving Skills
Comprehensive training: Specialize in sat operations, bell procedures, emergency drills, and life-support systems.
Human performance: Manage sleep, nutrition, and exercise under confinement. Mental health support is not optional.
System reliability: Maintain habitat environmental controls, gas quality, fire suppression, and redundancy with meticulous records.
Operational discipline: Clear shift handovers, toolbox talks, and checklists for every stage—bell runs to decompression.
Medical oversight: Routine monitoring by qualified hyperbaric medical support, with crisp evacuation protocols.
How to Display Saturation Diving Skills on Your Resume
10. Commercial Diving Equipment Maintenance
Maintenance covers inspection, cleaning, servicing, repair, and testing of helmets, umbilicals, regulators, comms, suits, hot water units, and support systems—documented and scheduled.
Why It's Important
Reliable gear is the thin line between a normal shift and a near miss. Good maintenance extends life, cuts failures, and sustains performance.
How to Improve Commercial Diving Equipment Maintenance Skills
Inspect every time: Pre- and post-dive checks with sign-offs. Log defects and fixes without fail.
Clean correctly: Freshwater rinse, proper detergents, dry thoroughly, protect from UV and heat. Salt is relentless.
Follow service intervals: Manufacturer schedules for regulators, valves, gauges, and comms. Use certified technicians where required.
Spares and traceability: Maintain spares kits and part numbers; track serials and calibration dates.
Stay informed: Monitor bulletins and recalls; update SOPs when guidance changes.
How to Display Commercial Diving Equipment Maintenance Skills on Your Resume
11. Underwater Photography
Photography underwater documents condition, captures evidence, and supports engineering decisions. Clear imagery shortens debates and speeds approvals.
Why It's Important
Visual proof is persuasive. You spot corrosion, confirm weld quality, measure growth, and show stakeholders exactly what exists down there.
How to Improve Underwater Photography Skills
Control the light: Use strobes or video lights to restore color and contrast; position to kill backscatter.
Stabilize: Nail buoyancy and bracing so images are sharp; consider trays and handles for steadier shots.
Compose with intent: Fill the frame, shoot orthogonal to surfaces for measurement, and include scale references.
Choose the right rig: Match housing, lenses/ports, and wet optics to task—macro for detail, wide for structures.
Care for the gear: O-ring hygiene, desiccant use, and post-dive cleaning prevent heartbreak.
Practice: Rehearse shot lists topside; underwater time goes fast.
How to Display Underwater Photography Skills on Your Resume
12. Dive Planning Software
Dive planning software calculates profiles, gas usage, and decompression, and captures the operational plan—timelines, roles, contingencies—so the whole team stays synced.
Why It's Important
Accurate plans reduce risk, reduce surprises, and keep crews within exposure limits while meeting work objectives.
How to Improve Dive Planning Software Skills
Use real-world inputs: Pull in tides, currents, and weather so plans reflect the day you’ll actually face.
Safety logic that helps: Apply current decompression models and add alerts for ascent rates, CNS/OTU limits, and gas reserves.
Smooth interfaces: Build templates for recurring tasks and make critical data—stops, times, contingencies—impossible to miss.
Track equipment: Log bottle pressures, gas mixes, regulator service dates, and communications checks inside the plan.
Customize profiles: Save mission-specific parameters for inspections, construction, or recovery ops.
Offline capability: Ensure plans and checklists work without connectivity in remote sites.
Team collaboration: Share plans, lock versions, and capture sign-offs so everyone’s reading the same playbook.
Update often: Keep site hazards, emergency contacts, and lessons learned current. Plans improve when feedback loops are real.
How to Display Dive Planning Software Skills on Your Resume
