Lead and manage operations aboard surface ships, including navigation, weapons systems, and tactical operations. Command divisions and departments on destroyers, cruisers, and amphibious ships.
Officer - College Degree Required
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Surface Warfare Officers run the ships of the fleet, and the job begins with standing watch on the bridge or in the combat information center. Underway you keep a rotating watch schedule around the clock, then work your division's maintenance, training and paperwork in the hours between. You are the officer answerable for a group of sailors, their qualifications, their evaluations and every piece of equipment you have signed for. Deployments run months at a time, and the shore tours between sea tours hand you back a stretch of ordinary life. Your first years go into earning the qualifications that let a captain trust you to drive a warship at night.
You learn shiphandling, navigation, radar interpretation and the rules of the road well enough to maneuver a warship through traffic. Engineering and combat systems qualifications teach how propulsion plants, damage control and weapons actually work rather than how they are briefed. Running a division is a management education in miniature: schedules, budgets, training records, discipline and honest counseling of people younger than you. A bachelor's degree is required, with a commission through the Naval Academy, NROTC, Officer Candidate School or a direct path for qualified graduates. Somewhere in there you also become good at running a meeting, writing clearly and briefing a decision maker in five minutes.
Watchstanding builds a specific kind of composure, because the ship keeps moving whether or not you feel ready for the next contact. You grow decisive, since a merchant closing at twenty knots will not wait while you gather more information. Living aboard with the same few dozen people for months teaches patience and a practical tolerance for other humans. The accountability is formative in a way classroom leadership training never manages, since when your equipment fails the answer is yours to give. Officers who do this well come out steady, organized and difficult to rattle with ordinary workplace pressure.
Sea time is a credential, and surface officers can carry documented underway experience toward Merchant Mariner credentialing and licensed mariner work. Maritime operations management, port and terminal operations, shipping lines and offshore energy all hire people who have run a watch and a division. The leadership record reads well to corporate management programs and to business school admissions, which value proven responsibility over coursework alone. Government service in maritime regulation, transportation, logistics and defense program offices is a common landing spot for this designator. A clearance, real management experience and technical exposure together open more doors than most people have at that age.
Your morning starts on the bridge wing of a destroyer, coffee in hand, reviewing the night orders and the ship's track before you relieve the watch. Throughout the day you conn the ship through busy shipping lanes, drill your division on damage control, and coordinate with the combat information center on tracking surface and air contacts. Evenings often mean planning the next day's evolutions with your department head and briefing junior officers on the tactical picture.
No suitable exact-MOS or related career-field video has been verified for this page yet. No unrelated video or search-results page is substituted.
$77,814–$144,392
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
For Navy 1110 Surface Warfare Officer, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceThe Navy directs enlisted Sailors to rating-specific Learning and Development Roadmaps (LaDRs), and officers to their community managers and officer career-progression guidance. Rating conversion and commissioning are separate application paths, not automatic promotions.
Navy career planning: LaDRs, officer progression, and commissioningService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
Limited Duty Officer (LDO) and Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) appointments require separate applications and program-specific qualifications. The reviewed active-duty page contains FY28 cycle requirements, not Reserve eligibility. Its 1 October 2026 application deadline has passed; this is not an open application offer or a verified designator match for this listing.
Navy active-duty LDO/CWO applicant requirementsSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Lead and manage operations aboard surface ships, including navigation, weapons systems, and tactical operations. Command divisions and departments on destroyers, cruisers, and amphibious ships.
Surface Warfare Officers run the ships of the fleet, and the job begins with standing watch on the bridge or in the combat information center. Underway you keep a rotating watch schedule around the clock, then work your division's maintenance, training and paperwork in the hours between. You are the officer answerable for a group of sailors, their qualifications, their evaluations and every piece of equipment you have signed for. Deployments run months at a time, and the shore tours between sea tours hand you back a stretch of ordinary life. Your first years go into earning the qualifications that let a captain trust you to drive a warship at night.
You learn shiphandling, navigation, radar interpretation and the rules of the road well enough to maneuver a warship through traffic. Engineering and combat systems qualifications teach how propulsion plants, damage control and weapons actually work rather than how they are briefed. Running a division is a management education in miniature: schedules, budgets, training records, discipline and honest counseling of people younger than you. A bachelor's degree is required, with a commission through the Naval Academy, NROTC, Officer Candidate School or a direct path for qualified graduates. Somewhere in there you also become good at running a meeting, writing clearly and briefing a decision maker in five minutes.
Sea time is a credential, and surface officers can carry documented underway experience toward Merchant Mariner credentialing and licensed mariner work. Maritime operations management, port and terminal operations, shipping lines and offshore energy all hire people who have run a watch and a division. The leadership record reads well to corporate management programs and to business school admissions, which value proven responsibility over coursework alone. Government service in maritime regulation, transportation, logistics and defense program offices is a common landing spot for this designator. A clearance, real management experience and technical exposure together open more doors than most people have at that age.
Officer - College Degree Required. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
A civilian can pursue this specialty through an officer accession path, subject to eligibility and assignment. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
Official branch occupation evidence
Occupation identified. This occupation was identified in the cited source. This does not verify requirements, benefits, or a current opening.
Navy active officer community managers · reviewed 2026-09-26
Confirmed. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Advertised — Navy, as of 2026-09-28Deployment likelihood: Higher*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.