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Job Description

Overview

A shipfitter contributes to all structural phases of a ship’s hull construction, including fitting, fabricating, assembly, and alignment of a ship’s structure. The role requires developing knowledge of various skills and tasks related to shipfitting, with a focus on safety and equipment usage.

Responsibilities

  • Complete basic cutting plate jobs and possess basic knowledge of burning.
  • Align and fit plates, ensuring strong backing and proper surface preparation.
  • Read, understand, and interpret basic blueprints to perform required tasks.
  • Review sketches or drawings and perform layouts.
  • Begin to learn grinding and tack welding through training.
  • Read and interpret basic sketches to complete layouts for access cuts.
  • Inspect tanks and document their current status.
  • Assist with tank testing and know ISO procedures for testing.
  • Install prefabricated foundations and accurately pinpoint installation locations.

Requirements

  • High School Diploma/GED.
  • 3-5 years of relevant experience.
  • Developing understanding of naval vessel compartments and terminology.
  • Ability to read, write, and comprehend simple instructions.
  • Ability to calculate and understand units of measure, including fractions and decimals.
  • Familiarity with framing square and leveling tools.
  • Knowledge of portable plasma arc and its uses.
  • Ability to wear standard PPE and use basic ship fitting tools.
  • Must be able to obtain a government access badge.

Benefits

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

Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
401k
PTO
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How this job compares in Norfolk, VA

Pay in context

At roughly $32/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $30/hr median for welding jobs in Norfolk, VA, whose middle half runs $27–$34/hr across 15 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 60% 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 Norfolk, VA

We're tracking 32 other active welding openings in Norfolk, VA right now, from 13 different employers. 3 of them were added in the last week. Across Virginia as a whole we're tracking 163 other active welding openings from 83 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Norfolk, or widen the search to Virginia.

BAE Systems Inc. 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 Innovative Refrigeration Systems, Inc. (14), General Dynamics NASSCO (10), and Atlantic Constructors, Inc. (8). 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 $40/hr, Norfolk at $30/hr, and Chesapeake at $27/hr. Norfolk is among them.

What you'll be running

This posting calls for Stick and Flux-Core work. Stick (SMAW) burns a flux-coated consumable rod and needs no shielding gas, so it works in wind, rain, and on dirty or rusted steel. That tolerance for bad conditions keeps it the default for field, structural, and repair work. Flux-cored (FCAW) runs a hollow wire filled with flux, combining MIG-like deposition rates with the outdoor tolerance of stick. It is the workhorse on heavy structural steel and shipbuilding, where thick sections and long welds reward speed.

See all shipyard welder openings if you want to compare this against similar roles.

Similar openings near Norfolk, VA

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