Machine Operator I (2nd Shift) Job
Location
Carson, CA
Wage
$23/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 25, 2026
Location
Carson, CA
Wage
$23/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on August 25, 2026
The Machine Operator I position at Arktura LLC, a subsidiary of Armstrong World Industries, is an entry-level role focused on the safe setup and operation of production machines in a manufacturing environment. The company fosters a supportive culture and offers various benefits to its employees.
At roughly $23/hr, this posting comes in about 30% below the $33/hr median for welding jobs across California, where the middle half runs $27–$41/hr across 470 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 10% 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.
Carson, CA currently has 4 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 3 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 596 other active welding openings from 293 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in Carson, or widen the search to California.
The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (34), Aerotek (16), 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 Redondo Beach at $65/hr, Long Beach at $49/hr, and Santa Ana at $48/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. Machine Operator I (2nd Shift) Job figures were last recalculated when this page was built.