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Job Description

Overview

This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), at the Salem VA Medical Center (VAMC). The primary duties involve the installation, maintenance, and repair of high temperature water and high-pressure piping systems.

Responsibilities

  • Installs, modifies, repairs, and maintains high temperature water and high pressure piping systems.
  • Installs and repairs steam generators, vacuum, air, water, and condensate pumps, radiators, valves, and tanks.
  • Sets up system routes, places and cuts route openings, installs regulating devices, and places hangers.
  • Determines and installs risers, flexible branches, expansion joints, pumps, gauges, and pressure regulators.
  • Reads and interprets blueprints, layout sketches, and manufacturers' literature for piping systems.
  • Replaces sections of pipe and repairs steam traps and relief and control valves.
  • Cuts, threads, and connects pipes using various methods.
  • Fits pipe sections by screwing, bolting, brazing, welding, gluing, fusing, soldering, and caulking.
  • Tests systems and equipment for proper operation, circulation, flow, pressure, and leaks.
  • Traces and troubleshoots pipe lines and systems to locate and repair leaks.
  • Performs safety and preventive maintenance inspections of systems and equipment.
  • Installs, troubleshoots, repairs, and modifies plumbing systems and fixtures.
  • Performs other related duties as assigned.

Additional Information

  • Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:45am - 4:30pm, with ability to work weekends and holidays.
  • Position Description Title/PD#: Pipefitter/PD07892A
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How this job compares in Salem, VA

Pay in context

At roughly $29/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $28/hr median for welding jobs across Virginia, whose middle half runs $25–$33/hr across 85 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 59% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. In other words it is a market-rate offer, so benefits, overtime, and shift schedule are where the real difference between this and the next posting on the list shows up.

The local market in Salem, VA

Salem, VA is a small market in our index: 2 other active welding openings alongside this one, from 2 employers. Across Virginia as a whole we're tracking 139 other active welding openings from 74 employers. With this few local postings, most welders here end up either commuting or looking at travel work. Browse welding jobs across Virginia.

Veterans Health Administration currently has 2 other openings live in Virginia, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in Virginia at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are General Dynamics NASSCO (10), Innovative Refrigeration Systems, Inc. (7), and HII (6). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within Virginia, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Newport News at $34/hr, Norfolk at $30/hr, and Chesapeake at $28/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near Salem, VA

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