Industrial Coatings Application Technician

About the role

When your shift starts, you’ll step into a fast-paced production environment and take ownership of preparing, coating, and finishing metal components to automotive-grade specifications. You will rotate between surface prep, mixing, spraying, measuring, documentation, and cleanup—keeping quality, safety, and timing at the forefront.

Shifts available: Openings on 1st, 2nd, and weekend shifts.

A day in the life

• Prep parts: mask, cap, plug, and protect surfaces; orbital sand to profile substrates; hand blast or run an 8–12 wheel roto-blaster as assigned.
• Stage and move work: use overheads, Blue Giants, and/or forklifts to load/unload carts or monorail systems.
• Clean and verify: remove grease, oil, and contaminants; measure airflow with an anemometer; verify wet and dry film thickness using gauges.
• Mix and apply: proportion finishes to the correct ratio; monitor viscosity with Zahn cups; apply base, protective, and finish coats using airless, HVLP, air-assisted, and electrostatic spray equipment.
• Quality and documentation: detect/report nonconforming materials per work instructions; apply decals per decal installation drawings; complete daily SPC charts and titration checks on washers.
• Maintain equipment: keep spray equipment clean and in proper working order; follow hazardous waste barrel guidelines; collect paint-related waste from paint gun flush activities.
• Contribute as needed: perform other duties as determined by supervision.

What you bring

• Proven skill applying a variety of coatings to achieve automotive-standard finishes.
• Ability to read and interpret safety rules, operating/maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals.
• Fluent with basic math (whole numbers, fractions, decimals) and calculating rates, ratios, and percentages.
• Comfort creating and interpreting data collection tools.

Health & safety

• Maintain housekeeping and 5S standards; perform all tasks safely and wear required PPE.
• Follow facility-wide and job-specific safety/health procedures; actively participate in training and demonstrate competency.
• Raise safety concerns or correct issues when able.
• If required to wear half/full-face respirators: pass an annual pulmonary function test, complete annual fit testing, and submit a medical surveillance questionnaire each year; no facial hair that interferes with the respirator seal.
• For air-supplied hood areas: no medical requirement, but an annual medical surveillance questionnaire is required.
• Hazardous waste handling for paint gun flush solvent includes initial and annual training covering: hazards, collection methods, spill prevention, bonding/grounding, emergency shutdown for paint/solvent lines, proper labeling/dating, storage requirements/time frames, spill reporting, emergency evacuation, and containment procedures.

Education & preferred qualifications

• High school diploma or GED preferred.
• Basic computer skills and familiarity with Microsoft Office.
• Forklift certification is a plus.

Working Environment:

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

This position is located on the production shop floor, in multiple buildings. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use tools or controls. The employee is frequently required to stand, reach, climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Incumbent will work in a typical paint environment including the use of solvents, adhesives, hydraulic oil, petroleum products, etc. There is frequent lifting and/or moving of up to 50 pounds.