Location
Whittier, CA
Wage
$26.23 – $36.31/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 18, 2026
The Plant Maintenance Technician I is responsible for repairing and maintaining machinery and mechanical equipment in a production environment. This role involves troubleshooting, inspecting, and repairing various mechanical devices while adhering to safety and operational standards.
At roughly $31/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $32/hr median for welding jobs across California, whose middle half runs $27–$38/hr across 313 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 48% 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.
Whittier, CA is a small market in our index: 1 other active welding opening alongside this one, from 1 employer. Across California as a whole we're tracking 399 other active welding openings from 208 employers. With this few local postings, most welders here end up either commuting or looking at travel work. Browse welding jobs across California.
Athens Services currently has 6 other openings 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 MIG and TIG work. MIG (GMAW) feeds a continuous wire electrode through a shielding-gas nozzle. It lays down metal fast and is forgiving on clean material, which is why it dominates production and light fabrication 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.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Plant Maintenance Technician I - 3rd Shift (Eligible for up to a $5,000 Sign On Bonus) figures were last recalculated when this page was built.