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Job Description

Overview

The Chicago Department of Transportation is seeking a Bridge and Structural Iron Worker to perform journey-level ironwork for the installation, repair, and maintenance of structural elements on City bridges and buildings. This position is open to the public and current City employees in the relevant bargaining unit.

Responsibilities

  • Read blueprints, specifications, and work orders to assess work required.
  • Cut metal units with hacksaws, burning torches, or plasma cutters.
  • Ensure adequate supplies of tools, equipment, and materials at work sites.
  • Fasten steel units to cables from a crane or derrick to hoist steel into place.
  • Check the vertical and horizontal alignment of steel and iron framework.
  • Operate turnbuckles, crowbars, and jacks to fit steel units into final position.
  • Drill and ring out rivet holes in steel units.
  • Align rivet holes and use a pneumatic riveter to bolt steel units into place.
  • Repair and maintain ironwork by welding steel joints.
  • Prepare work activity reports.
  • Install reinforcing iron into concrete.
  • Load, transport, and unload equipment and supplies as required.
  • Clean equipment and work site after repairs.

Requirements

  • Successful completion of a US Department of Labor registered structural ironwork apprenticeship training program and journeyman status.
  • Successful completion of an industry or company sponsored apprenticeship training program in structural ironwork plus two years of journey level work experience.
  • Five years of experience as a Bricklayer.
  • A valid State of Illinois driver's license is required.
  • Ability to lift up to 75 pounds.
  • Ability to walk and stand for extended periods.
  • Ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with one's body.
  • Ability to climb staircases, ladders, and/or step stools.
  • Ability to access difficult to enter spaces.
  • Ability to operate applicable hand tools, power tools, and equipment.
  • Ability to tolerate heights while working.

Additional Information

  • Location: 31ST & Sacramento Blvd
  • Days: Monday - Friday
  • Hours: 7:30 am – 3:30 pm
  • This position is in the career service.
  • Applications accepted until 11:59pm CDT on September 1, 2026.
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How this job compares in Chicago, IL

Pay in context

At roughly $64/hr, this posting sits about 95% above the $33/hr median for welding jobs in Chicago, IL — toward the top of a $25–$39/hr middle band drawn from 36 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 100% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. Pay that far above local median usually comes attached to something: a harder cert requirement, travel, night shift, or overtime that isn't really optional. Worth establishing which before you accept.

The local market in Chicago, IL

We're tracking 56 other active welding openings in Chicago, IL right now, from 36 different employers. 2 of them were added in the last week. Across Illinois as a whole we're tracking 237 other active welding openings from 175 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Chicago, or widen the search to Illinois.

City of Chicago currently has 2 other openings live in Illinois, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in Illinois at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are S&C Electric Company (14), Gerber Collision & Glass (9), and Aerotek (7). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within Illinois, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Chicago at $33/hr and Peoria at $31/hr. Chicago is among them.

Similar openings near Chicago, IL

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. BRIDGE AND STRUCTURAL IRON WORKER figures were last recalculated when this page was built.