Driving Instructor

Become a Driving Instructor in Centralia — Teach a Skill That Lasts a Lifetime

There aren’t many jobs where you can see the difference you make every single day.

At Olympic Driving School, our instructors help teenagers move from nervous first-time drivers to safe, confident, responsible drivers. You’ll teach them how to make good decisions, manage risk, stay calm under pressure, and develop habits they may use for the rest of their lives.

We’re hiring a full-time Driving Instructor (30 hours per week) for our Centralia location near Goodwill and the Centralia Outlet Center.

If you enjoy teaching, mentoring young people, and helping others succeed, this can be an incredibly rewarding job.

What Makes a Great Driving Instructor?

Being a great driver is important — but this job is really about being a great teacher, coach, communicator, and safety-minded mentor.

Some of our strongest candidates have backgrounds in:

• Teaching, tutoring, coaching, or training
• Working with teenagers or young adults
• Youth programs, camps, churches, schools, or community organizations
• Public safety, transportation, military, security, or other safety-focused work
• Customer service roles requiring patience, communication, and professionalism
• Presenting, facilitating, or teaching groups

You do not need previous driving-instructor experience. We provide the training needed to become licensed.

And you don’t need to check every box above. If you have experience that has prepared you to patiently teach young people, communicate clearly, maintain high safety standards, and remain calm in challenging situations, we’d still like to hear from you.

What You’ll Do

As a Driving Instructor, you’ll:

• Teach teenagers and adults safe, defensive driving habits behind the wheel.
• Help nervous or inexperienced students build confidence.
• Teach classroom lessons and explain driving concepts in an engaging, understandable way.
• Observe student performance and provide clear, constructive feedback.
• Reinforce good judgment, situational awareness, and risk management.
• Communicate professionally with students, parents, coworkers, and managers.
• Complete occasional administrative and office-related tasks.
• Celebrate a lot of firsts — first drives, first successful parallel parks, passed tests, and newly licensed drivers.

Some students will arrive excited. Some will arrive terrified. Some will be confident before they should be.

Your job is to meet them where they are and help them become safer drivers.

Who This Position Is Probably Not For

This position is not simply a professional driving job.

Experience as a rideshare driver, delivery driver, courier, truck driver, or other driving-intensive position can certainly be valuable, but driving experience by itself generally does not prepare someone for this role.

We are specifically looking for people who can teach, coach, mentor, communicate, and work effectively with teenagers.

If your primary qualification is that you are a very experienced driver, but you have little or no experience teaching, training, coaching, mentoring, working with youth, or performing safety-focused work, this position may not be the best fit.

Minimum Requirements

Applicants must:

• Be at least 21 years old.
• Have at least 5 years of licensed driving experience.
• Hold a valid Washington State driver’s license.
• Have a good driving record with no license suspensions within the past 2 years.
• Have a high school diploma or GED.
• Be able to pass state and federal background checks.
• Be dependable, professional, patient, and comfortable working closely with teenagers.

Qualifications We Especially Value

We’re particularly interested in candidates with experience in one or more of the following:

• Teaching or education
• Coaching or mentoring
• Working with teenagers
• Employee or customer training
• Public speaking or presenting
• Safety, risk management, transportation, military, or emergency services
• Youth programs or community organizations
• Spanish fluency

Again, these are not all requirements. We care just as much about whether you have the temperament and communication skills to become an excellent instructor.

Why Our Instructors Enjoy the Job

• Your work matters. You’re teaching one of the most important safety skills a young person will ever learn.
• You get to watch people grow. A student who is gripping the steering wheel in terror during lesson one may be confidently navigating traffic a few weeks later — and you helped make that happen.
• The work stays interesting. Every student is different. Every lesson is different. And you definitely won’t spend your entire day sitting behind a desk.Olympic Driving School is a locally owned company with a team that takes safety seriously without taking ourselves too seriously.
• You’ll be part of a supportive team. We provide and pay for the training required to become a Washington State licensed Driving Instructor.

Training & Pay

• $23/hour
• Minimum 100 hours of paid instructor training
• Olympic Driving School pays required licensing, application, and fingerprinting costs
• $1000 bonus after 90 days as a licensed instructor
• Additional $2/hour after becoming a certified examiner, typically after approximately 6 months
• Additional $5/hour when providing private lessons

Typical Schedule

This is a full-time position of approximately 30 hours per week.

Typical hours include:

• Weekdays: Primarily afternoons and evenings, approximately 1–8 PM
• Saturdays: Approximately two Saturdays per month, generally 9 AM–2 PM
• Sundays: We are always closed
• Additional hours are often available during our busy summer season

Because most of our students are teenagers attending school during the day, applicants should expect afternoon and evening hours to be a regular part of the position.

About Olympic Driving School

Olympic Driving School has been helping students become safer drivers for years, with locations serving communities throughout Southwest Washington.

We care deeply about providing an excellent experience for both students and parents — and our instructors are the biggest reason we’re able to do that.

Visit www.driveolympic.com and take a look at our Google reviews to get a feel for who we are and what our customers say about us.

Interested?

If you’re patient, dependable, safety-minded, good with young people, and enjoy the satisfaction that comes from teaching someone a skill they’ll use for the rest of their life, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply today and tell us a little about the experience you have teaching, coaching, mentoring, training, working with teenagers, or helping others learn.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $23.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Flexible schedule
• Paid time off
• Referral program

Application Question(s):

• Willing to work the typical schedule outlined in the posting?

Education:

• High school or equivalent (Required)

Language:

• Spanish (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• Driver License (Required)
• driver license for minimum 5 years (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $23