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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, and valves.
  • Sets up system routes, places and cuts route openings, and installs regulating devices.
  • 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 leak-free joints.
  • Traces and troubleshoots pipe lines, systems, and equipment 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 comes in about 35% below the $45/hr median for pipefitter jobs across Virginia, where the middle half runs $40–$51/hr across 8 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 0% 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 Salem, VA

Salem, VA is a small market in our index: 1 other active welding opening alongside this one, from 1 employer. Across Virginia as a whole we're tracking 163 other active welding openings from 83 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 1 other opening 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. 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.