An industrial audiologist is a licensed audiologist who runs the occupational side of hearing care: the audiometric testing programs and the professional review of problem audiograms, including standard threshold shifts, inside employers' OSHA hearing conservation programs.
The work sits with employers and the testing services that support them — mobile test vans are even written into OSHA's rule — rather than a clinic caseload.
This guide explains the job, the employers and the route in.
What is an industrial audiologist?
An industrial audiologist is a licensed audiologist whose work centers on occupational hearing conservation: the ongoing testing, audiogram review and recordkeeping that monitor workers in an employer's hearing conservation program over time.
The field also goes by occupational audiology; this guide treats occupational audiologist and hearing conservation audiologist postings as the same specialty.
The role's legal footing is OSHA's noise standard, 29 CFR 1910.95.
Paragraph (g)(3) requires audiometric tests to be performed by a licensed or certified audiologist, an otolaryngologist or other physician, or a technician certified by CAOHC or who has demonstrated competence.
The same paragraph requires a technician who performs the tests to be responsible to an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician.
That wording is the foundation of the specialty: the rule names audiologists both as testers in their own right and among the professionals responsible for technician oversight, alongside otolaryngologists and physicians.
Program design, review and determinations all build on that named role.
Industrial audiology is a setting and a program to run.
You enter it on an audiology license — BLS notes all states require audiologists to be licensed — and the specialty shapes what you do with that license.
For the profession as a whole, the site's audiologist listings are the starting point.
What does an industrial audiologist do?
The core of the job is the audiometric monitoring side of an employer's hearing conservation program: making sure workers get tested as the program requires and that each annual audiogram is compared with the worker's baseline.
OSHA lets a technician make that comparison, but problem audiograms must be reviewed by an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician, and that review drives what the employer records and what a program does next.
The comparison looks for a standard threshold shift.
OSHA defines an STS as an average change of 10 dB or more at 2000, 3000 and 4000 Hz in either ear relative to the baseline audiogram, under 29 CFR 1910.95(g)(10)(i).
Only the reviewing audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician may substitute an annual audiogram for the baseline, when a shift is persistent or hearing has significantly improved.
STS review ties into the employer's recordkeeping.
Under 29 CFR 1904.10, a work-related STS is recordable on the OSHA 300 Log when the employee's total hearing level is also 25 dB or more above audiometric zero, averaged at those same frequencies in the same ear.
CAOHC assigns the work-relatedness determination to the CPS/A — an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician holding its professional supervisor credential.
Around that review, the work is program oversight: supervising the technicians who run the testing, checking that testing follows the program's procedures, and working with safety personnel on what the results mean for the program.
Who employs industrial audiologists?
The work exists because of a trigger in the rule: OSHA requires a hearing conservation program whenever employee noise exposure equals or exceeds an 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 dBA — the action level, under 29 CFR 1910.95(c).
The employers running those programs are the market for this specialty.
CAOHC describes where the program's technicians work: some in fixed facilities such as on-site industry clinics or occupational health clinics, others travelling with mobile hearing testing vans, and some in government agencies and military installations.
Mobile test vans are even written into the rule: an employer using one has a year to establish a worker's baseline audiogram instead of six months, under 29 CFR 1910.95(g)(5)(ii).
Wherever OSHA's rule applies, those technicians must be responsible to an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician.
Our research did not establish which of those settings hire audiologists on staff, so read each posting for where the professional review sits.
On the government and military side, VHA audiology employs nearly 400 health technicians who work under a licensed audiologist's supervision, many holding CAOHC's COHC designation, and Army audiologists support the hearing conservation services of the Army Hearing Program.
Wherever the rule applies, the structure is the same: testing can be delegated to trained technicians, but the professional responsibility behind it cannot — it rests with an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician.
That is the seat the industrial audiologist occupies.
If your organization is on the hiring side, start from the site's hiring section to hire an industrial audiologist.
How do you get into occupational audiology?
The route in runs through audiology itself, then adds the occupational layer on top.
The steps below follow the credential structure CAOHC and the OSHA rule set up.
Earn and hold the audiology license
Industrial audiologist roles are audiology positions, so the degree-and-license work comes first — BLS notes all states require audiologists to be licensed. Your state licensing board sets the current requirements and answers scope questions for your setting.Learn the testing side
CAOHC's COHC certification for technicians requires a minimum of 20 hours of instruction plus a national standardized exam. OSHA's rule does not make that certification mandatory — a technician can also qualify by demonstrating competence.Add the professional supervisor credential
CAOHC's CPS/A exam is open only to audiologists and physicians with a current license; other professionals may take the course but not the exam. Certification is valid for five years, and once it expires the full course must be retaken.Move into program work
Look for roles where the audiometric monitoring program is the job rather than an add-on to a clinical schedule: postings tied to an employer's hearing conservation program, or to the industry clinics, occupational health clinics and mobile testing operations where its testing happens.
Rules and credentials change
Industrial audiologist vs hearing conservationist
The two roles sit on the same program at different levels.
Hearing conservationists — the technician side of the program — run the testing itself, and OSHA lets a technician compare an annual audiogram with the baseline for a standard threshold shift.
The industrial audiologist sits above the testing, carrying the review of problem audiograms, any revised baseline, the work-relatedness determination CAOHC assigns to the CPS/A and the program responsibility.
OSHA's rule draws that line.
Paragraph (g)(3) lets a technician certified by CAOHC, or one who has demonstrated competence, perform the tests, and operators of microprocessor audiometers do not need certification at all.
The same paragraph, though, requires every technician to be responsible to an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician — and names the audiologist among the professionals who can perform the testing in full.
The credential map matches the split.
CAOHC's COHC certification — a minimum of 20 hours of instruction plus a national standardized exam, though OSHA does not mandate certification — belongs to the technician side.
The CPS/A belongs to the supervision side, and its exam is open only to audiologists and physicians with a current license.
For career planning, the difference is the license underneath: the rule's technician provisions let a technician who is CAOHC-certified or has demonstrated competence run the testing, while industrial audiologist roles are audiology positions.
The site lists hearing conservationist jobs separately if you want to see that side of the market.
Find industrial audiologist jobs
Search several titles: industrial audiologist, occupational audiologist, hearing conservation audiologist, plus plain audiologist postings with an employer-services or occupational focus.
Read postings for the program's shape rather than the label — who performs the testing, who reviews, and whether the role carries professional supervisor responsibility.
These roles are audiology positions, so the license is central, and CAOHC's credential structure comes up given how the rule assigns responsibility.
The program's testing happens in varied settings — on-site industry clinics, occupational health clinics, mobile testing vans, government agencies and military installations, by CAOHC's account — so the employer behind a posting varies.
That makes it worth reading adjacent listings too — audiologist postings with occupational work, and hearing conservationist postings if you are approaching the field from the technician side.
Occupational postings sit on this board next to every other hearing care role, which keeps the specialty visible instead of buried in general healthcare searches.
Career information, not medical, legal or tax advice. The rules described here come from OSHA and CAOHC; confirm current requirements with your state audiology board, OSHA and CAOHC.