4 audio engineer jobs across the United States are accepting applications on ShowRoster. You get the rate, the dates and the gear on the card. No digging. Set your filters once and let matching calls come to you.
4 open audio engineer jobs across the United States.
On a live event the audio engineer owns everything the audience and the presenters hear. The A1 mixes the show: front of house on a concert, the general session mix on a corporate gig, or both on a smaller call. The A2 supports from the stage, handling wireless mics, in-ears, the stage patch, and the line check before doors.
The work runs wider than mixing. Audio crew tune and time the PA, coordinate RF so forty wireless channels do not step on each other, build comms for the production team, and feed clean audio to broadcast and streaming when the show leaves the room.
A typical show call starts at load-in: push cases, fly or ground-stack the PA, run snake and power, patch the stage. Then line check, sound check or rehearsal, doors, the show itself, and strike. On a multi-day corporate program the first day is usually rig and rehearse, and show days run long, from an early call to the end of the evening session.
Corporate work is the volume market: general sessions, breakouts, award shows. Concerts and festivals bring bigger systems and louder rooms. Theatre, broadcast, and house of worship each hire audio crew on their own rhythm. Every version of the gig comes down to the same things: clean gain structure, a fast line check, and staying calm when a mic dies mid-show.
Most audio work is freelance, booked by the day. Day rates commonly run $350 to $900 depending on market, role, and the size of the show, with A1 seats at the top of that spread and A2 and audio tech calls below it. Touring work is usually a weekly rate plus per diem instead of a day rate.
Staff jobs exist too: in-house AV at hotels and convention centers, integration firms, production companies, and universities. Staff salaries trade the ceiling of a busy freelance year for benefits and a predictable schedule, and a few staff years are a common way to build chops before going out on your own.
Dante certification is the verified certification that shows up on audio calls constantly. Audinate runs the program in levels, Level 1 through Level 3, the training is free and online, and the credential can be verified, which is why networked-audio calls list it by level. AVIXA CTS is the other verified certification employers recognize: an accredited, exam-based credential covering AV systems in general rather than mixing in particular.
Keep the other credential types straight. OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 are safety cards, completion cards from an outreach training course, not certifications, and many venues and general contractors require one before you step on site. Lift tickets are operator cards in the same family. Manufacturer training, like Q-SYS classes or an L-Acoustics, d&b, or Meyer system course, is vendor-issued training, worth listing but not a certification. Console chops on DiGiCo, Yamaha, Avid, or Allen & Heath are self-reported skills: you list them, and the gig tests them.
The normal route is stage tech or A2 first, then A1 on smaller shows, then bigger rooms. From the A1 chair careers branch into system engineering, RF coordination as a specialty, monitor world on tours, crew chief, or project management on the production side.
What moves you up is repeat business. Show up early, keep the patch documented, make the line check fast, and the crewing manager calls you back with a better seat on the next show.