The surface roughness of steel piles may vary considerably, depending on how much exposure they have to the environment during storage or in the field. Although several studies have recognized the importance of roughness on the mobilization of frictional forces, its application to the design of deep foundations in the field requires further research. This paper presents the results of static load tests performed with an instrumented model pile with three different surface roughnesses jacked in a half-cylindrical calibration chamber with digital image correlation (DIC) capabilities. The model piles were tested in tension and compression in dense and medium-dense sand samples prepared by air pluviation. The analysis of the data obtained from local sensors and the images processed with DIC indicate that an increase in the pile surface roughness results in an increase in the average unit shaft resistance and an increase in the displacements and strains in the soil next to the shaft of the pile. Values of K/K0 accounting the effect of surface roughness are provided for the estimation of the tensile and compressive limit unit shaft resistance of jacked piles in sand.