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Job Description

Overview

The Welder/Fitter position at HII involves supporting fleet modernization operations primarily at the Woodlake Fabrication Shop in Chesapeake, VA, with potential local travel to shipyards and military bases. HII is a trusted partner to military customers, providing advanced technologies and solutions for national defense.

Responsibilities

  • Display quality, integrity, safety, respect, engagement, and performance consistent with company values.
  • Support trades team by working on active class surface ships for alterations and installations.
  • Perform work in accordance with established quality and safety procedures.
  • Execute a variety of tasks related to shipboard maintenance to meet contract standards.
  • Work from blueprints, engineering sketches, charts, or work orders.
  • Fabricate, maintain, repair, and modify structural elements and equipment.
  • Lay out and mark points and lines on parts or subassemblies.
  • Cut, fit, assemble, and position pieces to be welded using hand and powered tools.
  • Apply welding processes to join, surface, fabricate, and repair parts of metal and other materials.
  • Work with technical documents including controlled work packages and reports.
  • Maintain effective communications and relations with team and management.

Requirements

  • Must demonstrate welding ability through X-ray qualification testing.
  • Must be a U.S. citizen.
  • High School education or Trade School equivalent, and 4 years of related experience.
  • Must obtain medical clearance to wear a half-face respirator.
  • Experience with stick welding (SMAW), Flux Core (FCAW), and Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) processes.
  • Working experience reading and interpreting drawings, blueprints, and technical manuals.
  • Ability to read and follow welding symbols accurately.
  • Ability to read measuring devices to 1/16 of an inch.
  • Must demonstrate knowledge of quality control procedures.
  • Must follow and enforce safety procedures.
  • Must be able to obtain and maintain a DoD Security clearance.
  • Experience working in a team environment with effective communication skills.
  • Must provide hand tools and trade-specific PPE.

Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • PTO
  • 401k

Additional Information

  • Position may require limited out-of-town travel up to 25%.
  • Occasional weekend or evening work may be necessary.
  • Candidates must pass qualification testing within the first three weeks of employment.

Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
PTO
401k
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How this job compares in Chesapeake, VA

Pay in context

At roughly $25/hr, this posting comes in about 12% below the $28/hr median for welding jobs across Virginia, where the middle half runs $25–$34/hr across 80 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 26% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. That gap is worth raising directly — in a market this size there is normally room to negotiate toward the median, particularly if you already hold the certifications the posting asks for.

The local market in Chesapeake, VA

Chesapeake, VA currently has 7 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 3 employers. 2 of them were added in the last week. Across Virginia as a whole we're tracking 138 other active welding openings from 71 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in Chesapeake, or widen the search to Virginia.

Mission Technologies, a division of HII currently has 4 other openings live in Virginia, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in Virginia at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Innovative Refrigeration Systems, Inc. (10), General Dynamics NASSCO (10), and HII (6). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within Virginia, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Newport News at $34/hr, Norfolk at $30/hr, and Chesapeake at $28/hr. Chesapeake is among them.

What you'll be running

This posting calls for TIG, Stick, and Flux-Core work. TIG (GTAW) uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode with filler added by hand, giving the operator the most control of any process. It is slow, demanding, and the standard for stainless, aluminum, and anything where the bead has to look as good as it holds. Stick (SMAW) burns a flux-coated consumable rod and needs no shielding gas, so it works in wind, rain, and on dirty or rusted steel. That tolerance for bad conditions keeps it the default for field, structural, and repair work.

Similar openings near Chesapeake, VA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Welder/Fitter - 28307 figures were last recalculated when this page was built.