Welder I - Certified - 1st Shift - Repair Solutions
Location
El Cajon, CA
Wage
$28 – $32/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 18, 2026
Location
El Cajon, CA
Wage
$28 – $32/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 18, 2026
GKN Aerospace is seeking a Welder I - Certified for 1st Shift in Repair Solutions. The role involves specializing in TIG welding on various metals and mentoring junior welders while contributing to a culture of safety and quality.
At roughly $30/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $28/hr median for welding jobs in El Cajon, CA, whose middle half runs $26–$30/hr across 9 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 67% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. In other words it is a market-rate offer, so benefits, overtime, and shift schedule are where the real difference between this and the next posting on the list shows up.
El Cajon, CA currently has 9 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 8 employers. None of them were added in the last week, so this is a slower-moving market. Across California as a whole we're tracking 399 other active welding openings from 208 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in El Cajon, or widen the search to California.
GKN Aerospace currently has 1 other opening live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.
The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (20), Aerotek (17), and Volt (16). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.
Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Santa Ana at $48/hr, Los Angeles at $38/hr, and Hawthorne at $36/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.
This posting calls for TIG. 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.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Welder I - Certified - 1st Shift - Repair Solutions figures were last recalculated when this page was built.