Technical Cave Diving Instructor — Advanced Programs

Responsibilities

• Facilitate PADI Full Cave Diver, IANTD Advanced Cave, or GUE Cave 1 courses: technical cave certification programs require conducting cave dives beyond the cavern zone (no visible daylight, no direct ascent to the surface), with full primary and secondary light systems, guideline management, and gas-thirds planning
• Conduct PADI TecRec programs (Tec 45, Tec 50) for divers advancing toward deeper cenote passages: decompression diving in cenote environments requires specific gas management and decompression procedure adaptation for the overhead environment
• Lead deep cenote passage guided dives for technical divers visiting Tulum: the Sac Actun system's deeper passages are accessible only to full cave-certified technical divers — the guide's route knowledge, gas planning, and situational awareness in passages that require a turn at exactly the right point to make the return is the primary product
• Train dive guides and cavern instructors in basic overhead environment safety: Tulum's cenote operation employs guides and cavern instructors who benefit from supervised introduction to basic cave awareness
• Maintain and calibrate technical diving equipment: side-mount configurations, back-mounted doubles, primary and secondary lights, and decompression computer systems require regular maintenance and calibration specific to cave diving use
• Contribute to cenote community safety culture: Tulum's technical cave diving community has a strong self-policing safety culture — experienced instructors contribute to informal mentorship of newer cave divers

Requirements

• PADI Full Cave Instructor, IANTD Cave 2 Instructor, or GUE Instructor equivalent
• 300+ cave dives logged in the Yucatán system
• TecRec or equivalent technical decompression diving certification
• Technical equipment maintenance competency (side-mount, doubles, cave lighting systems)
• English and Spanish bilingual; ideally German or French for European technical diving market

Benefits

• IMSS, aguinaldo, paid vacation + premium
• Housing support in Tulum
• Technical course fee participation in addition to fixed monthly
• Access to Sac Actun system passages for ongoing personal cave dive exploration
• Technical diving community recognition and career network in the international cave diving world

Work environment

Advanced technical cave diving instruction in the Yucatán's freshwater cave systems, based from Tulum. The most specialized and technically demanding diving instruction role in Mexico.

About the role

The full cave instructor who took a student through their first properly planned cave penetration — primary off, secondary on, navigating by touch alone for 15 seconds before the primary re-ignites — and who watched that student maintain their position and breathing rate through the exercise without panic, knows that they have trained someone who will dive the world's cave systems safely. That specific transmission of competence, in a zero-error environment, is what cave diving instruction is.