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Job Description

Overview

A growing food manufacturing company is seeking a highly skilled Fabricator / Sanitary Welder to join its Engineering & Maintenance team. This hands-on position requires experience in stainless-steel projects from concept through fabrication, welding, and installation.

Responsibilities

  • Fabricate, modify, install, and repair stainless-steel equipment, piping, tanks, conveyors, platforms, guarding, hoppers, and other plant components.
  • Perform precision TIG and MIG welding, including thin-gauge and sanitary stainless applications.
  • Handle stainless-steel layout, cutting, forming, grinding, polishing, passivation, and finishing.
  • Interpret blueprints, P&IDs, schematics, weld symbols, and engineering drawings.
  • Fabricate components based on drawings, specifications, and field measurements.
  • Support equipment installations, utility connections, capital projects, and plant upgrades.
  • Build replacement parts and components to minimize downtime.
  • Ensure fabrication meets sanitary design standards using 304/316L stainless and food-grade materials.
  • Assist with equipment troubleshooting, preventive maintenance, and continuous improvement projects.
  • Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior fabricators and maintenance team members.

Requirements

  • 7+ years of professional welding and fabrication experience.
  • 3+ years working in food, beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, or another sanitary manufacturing environment.
  • Advanced TIG and MIG welding skills with stainless steel.
  • Strong experience with sanitary tubing, Tri-Clamp fittings, weld ferrules, and butt welds.
  • Excellent stainless-steel fabrication, finishing, grinding, and polishing skills.
  • Ability to independently manage a fabrication project from start to finish.
  • Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, P&IDs, and weld symbols.
  • Working knowledge of sanitary design, GMPs, food safety, and CIP systems.
  • AWS D1.6 or ASME Section IX certification preferred.
  • Orbital welding experience is a plus.

Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • PTO

Additional Information

  • Pay: $35-$45/hour
  • Schedule: Monday-Friday | 6:00 AM-3:30 PM
  • Occasional Weekend Or Scheduled Shutdown Work May Be Required.

Benefits

Health Insurance
PTO
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How this job compares in Northvale, NJ

Pay in context

At roughly $40/hr, this posting sits about 21% above the $33/hr median for welding jobs across New Jersey — toward the top of a $27–$40/hr middle band drawn from 154 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 73% 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 Northvale, NJ

Northvale, NJ is a small market in our index: 2 other active welding openings alongside this one, from 2 employers. Across New Jersey as a whole we're tracking 216 other active welding openings from 135 employers. With this few local postings, most welders here end up either commuting or looking at travel work. Browse welding jobs across New Jersey.

gpac currently has 1 other opening live in New Jersey, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in New Jersey at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Rhoads Industries (13), MillenniumSoft Inc (11), and Gpac (9). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within New Jersey, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Newark at $38/hr, Camden at $37/hr, and Linden at $30/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

What you'll be running

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.

Certifications this posting mentions

  • ASME Section IX — the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code qualification. It covers welding on pressure-retaining equipment — boilers, vessels, and process piping — where a failed weld is a safety incident rather than a rework ticket.

Read straight from this posting's text. Confirm the exact qualification the employer wants before you test — requirements vary by shop even under the same code.

Similar openings near Northvale, NJ

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