EXPERIENCED BOAT BUILDER - LEADING HAND

Mahi Boats; Gold Coast City; On-site; AUD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Mahi Boats on the Gold Coast is seeking an experienced boatbuilder to lead a crew in custom vessel construction and major refits. You’ll read drawings, plan work, allocate tasks and ensure quality across laminating, bonding, fairing and finishing.

We value hands-on leadership, the ability to teach younger hands, and a track record of reading technical drawings and setting out work. Australian work rights and White Card are required; join a seriously equipped facility by the water.

Qualifications

• Genuine experience building or refitting composite vessels.
• Strong laminating, structural bonding, fairing and finishing skills.
• Confident reading technical drawings and setting work out.
• Experience leading or supervising a crew is preferred.
• Australian work rights and a White Card are required.

Responsibilities

• Read drawings, set the job out and own the outcome.
• Run a crew day-to-day: allocate, sequence and keep work moving.
• Hold the quality line and call rework when needed.
• Work with design and CNC to solve problems on the spot.
• Teach and mentor younger hands to raise the team capability.

Skills

Laminating

Structural bonding

Finishing

Fairing

Reading drawings

Team leadership

Training others

Education

Trade qualifications in boat building, shipwrighting or composites

Tools

CNC machining

3D printing

Robotics

Job description

Think you're one of the best? Keep reading.

Experienced boat builders who've done the years, know their craft, have opinions worth listening to and are ready to run a crew, not just their own hours.

Still learning your craft? Respect. Come back when you're ready. Or rock up at the door and prove us wrong.

Ambition goes a long way around here.

Still here? Let's talk.

Off the tools recently:

A 50ft custom sailing catamaran, on show at this year's Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show

A 50ft custom power catamaran

On the floor now:

A 37ft game-boat-style commercial fishing vessel, launching in the next few months

Major refits running alongside the new builds

Under the same roof we run design through to tooling and finished composite parts, with 5, 4 and 3 axis CNC machining, 3D printing, robotics and advanced composite manufacturing sitting alongside the boat building floor.

Here’s the ambition.

Custom boat building in Australia has been going backwards for years. We're not interested in just keeping it alive. We want it thriving again.

We believe the future is great boat builders working alongside great designers, digital manufacturing, CNC and modern composite technology. But the technology is only part of it. You still need great people who know how to build boats.

That’s who we’re looking for.

The role

You’ll be on the tools. You’ll also be running work. You’ll be expected to look ahead, make calls, solve problems and keep the people around you moving.

Structural and finishing work across new builds and major refits

Composite laminating, structural bonding, fairing and finishing to a standard you’re proud to put your name on

Fit-out, bulkheads, structures, hardware and systems interfaces

Read the drawings, set the job out and own the outcome

Run a crew day to day: allocate, sequence and keep the work moving

Hold the quality line and call rework when it needs calling

Work with design and CNC rather than waiting for someone else to solve the problem

Teach what you know and bring the younger hands up behind you

That last one matters. We’re not interested in having all that experience locked up in one person’s head. Part of being a leader here is making the people around you better.

You get the autonomy. You carry the outcome.

Who we’re after

Genuine experience building or refitting composite vessels. Strong across laminating, structural bonding, fairing and finishing. Confident reading technical drawings and capable of setting work out properly.

You’ve probably led or supervised people before. More importantly, you’ve developed the judgement to know when something isn’t right and the backbone to say so.

Trade qualifications in boat building, shipwrighting or composites are great. Large-vessel refit, fit-out, joinery and systems experience are all valuable too. But we’re hiring the person, not collecting tickets.

Australian work rights and a current White Card are required.

The attitude test

Skill gets you the interview. Attitude gets you the job.

We want people who take ownership, teach freely, admit mistakes early, chase better ways of doing things and lift the crew around them.

Ego doesn’t impress us. Neither does being the bloke who can do brilliant work but makes everyone else’s day harder.

The best people’ we’ve worked with are weapons on the tools and good humans to have beside you when the pressure is on. That’s the standard.

What you get back

One-off custom boats and major refits, not production-line boat building

A seriously well-equipped facility right on the water at GCCM

5, 4 and 3 axis CNC machining, 3D printing, robotics and digital fabrication under the same roof

An in-house design team you can actually work with

Real responsibility from day one and a genuine pathway into further leadership

Training and development for people who want to keep getting better

A growing business with serious work ahead of it

The opportunity to help build something bigger than the next boat

We’re ambitious about where this goes. If you are too, you’ll fit in.

The money

$48 to $60 an hour plus super, with a leading hand allowance on top.

We don’t expect everyone who applies to be worth $60 an hour. But if you are, we’re prepared to pay it.

The top end is for a genuine weapon. Someone who can run work, lead a crew, read the drawings, solve problems before they become problems, hold the quality line and make the people around them better.

At $60 an hour, standard hours puts you around $118k before super. Add overtime and there’s plenty of earning potential from there.

No buried hours. No salary that quietly swallows your Saturdays. You work it, we pay it.

And if you reckon you’re worth more than that, tell us why. We’ll listen. Good people pay for themselves and we know it.