Tooling Specialist III, Machine Build- 1st Shift
Location
Fullerton, CA
Wage
$21.91 – $37.25/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on November 11, 2026
Location
Fullerton, CA
Wage
$21.91 – $37.25/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on November 11, 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 18% below the $36/hr median for welding jobs across California, where the middle half runs $30–$48/hr across 373 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 24% 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 4 employers. 3 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 505 other active welding openings from 240 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 2 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 (37), Relativity Space (18), and Welding Shop in Los Angeles, CA (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 El Segundo at $53/hr, Los Angeles at $51/hr, and Pasadena at $50/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.