Back to Jobs

Tenneco

Hand Welder

Location

Harrisonburg, VA

Wage

$22.19 – $25.47/hr

Employment Type

Full-time

Required Skills & Certifications

MIG WeldingTIG WeldingPIPEAPI
Apply for This Position

Posted on October 22, 2026

Job Description

Overview

The Hand Welder is responsible for laying out, fitting, and welding various components to assemble mufflers, pipes, and catalytic converters, ensuring production schedules are met efficiently.

Responsibilities

  • Selects equipment and plans layout, assembly, and welding from blueprints and route cards.
  • Positions, aligns, and fits components together according to specifications.
  • Bolts, clamps, and tack-welds parts to secure them for welding.
  • Sets up equipment and welds parts using various welding techniques.
  • Repairs products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts.
  • Inspects parts to ensure they meet quality standards and follows quality procedures.
  • Completes annual reviews of OSHA required training classes.
  • Reports safety malfunctions and near misses to the supervisor.
  • Maintains a high standard of housekeeping in the department.
  • Completes necessary paperwork such as job cards and production tickets.

Requirements

  • Previous experience as a MIG welder preferred.
  • Must complete Walker in-house certification process.
  • Ability to read and comprehend blueprints and safety rules.
  • Ability to write simple correspondence.
  • Ability to perform basic mathematical calculations.
  • Ability to interpret measuring gauges.
  • Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions.
  • Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables.
  • Welding Certification may be required.

Benefits

  • 401k
  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • PTO

Additional Information

  • Work location is in person.
  • Physical demands include lifting up to 50 lbs and exposure to moderate to high noise levels.

Benefits

401k
Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
PTO
Apply for This Position

How this job compares in Harrisonburg, VA

Pay in context

At roughly $24/hr, this posting comes in about 18% below the $29/hr median for welding jobs across Virginia, where the middle half runs $24–$34/hr across 70 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 20% 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.

The local market in Harrisonburg, VA

This is the only active welding job we're currently tracking in Harrisonburg, VA, which makes it worth moving on quickly — there is no local competing offer to weigh it against. Across Virginia as a whole we're tracking 128 other active welding openings from 70 employers. Browse welding jobs across Virginia.

The most active employers in Virginia at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Innovative Refrigeration Systems, Inc. (14), General Dynamics NASSCO (10), and Atlantic Constructors, Inc. (7). 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 $38/hr, Norfolk at $30/hr, and Chesapeake at $28/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.

Similar openings near Harrisonburg, VA

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