Tooling Specialist III, Machine Build- 1st Shift
Location
Fullerton, CA
Wage
$21.91 – $37.25/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on September 8, 2026
Location
Fullerton, CA
Wage
$21.91 – $37.25/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on September 8, 2026
Howmet Fastening Systems is seeking a Tooling Specialist III for the Machine Build on the 1st Shift at their aerospace manufacturing facility in Fullerton, CA. This role involves designing and manufacturing specialized custom automation solutions for aerospace fastener manufacturing, utilizing advanced technologies.
At roughly $30/hr, this posting comes in about 15% below the $35/hr median for welding jobs across California, where the middle half runs $27–$43/hr across 486 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 32% 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.
Fullerton, CA currently has 4 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 3 employers. 1 of them was added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 636 other active welding openings from 310 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in Fullerton, or widen the search to California.
Howmet Aerospace currently has 4 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 (34), Honeywell Aerospace (16), and Valar Atomics (13). 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 Redondo Beach at $51/hr, Long Beach at $42/hr, and Los Angeles at $42/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Tooling Specialist III, Machine Build- 1st Shift figures were last recalculated when this page was built.