Journeyman Commercial Kitchen Installer (Travel Required)

Innovative Installations; Tempe (AZ); On-site; USD 29,000 - 33,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Per diem

Hotel room provided

Company vehicle for travel

Health insurance

Dental & vision

401(k) with 6% match

Paid holidays

Fingerprint clearance card paid

Job summary

Innovative Installations seeks an experienced installer to run projects without supervision. You will lead a two-to-four person crew, travel regionally, and install kitchen-related fixtures from start to finish.

Requirements include 3+ years in construction or a skilled trade, ability to read drawings, and a valid license with your own basic hand tools. Enjoy steady year-round W-2 with travel and per diem.

Qualifications

• 3+ years hands-on in construction or a skilled trade.
• Read drawings and work to tolerance without supervision.
• Can be away overnight, Mon–Fri, about half of every month.
• Valid license, clean record, own hand tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead a crew of two to four on site from start to finish.
• Travel with the same crew and execute projects end-to-end as planned.
• Install commercial kitchen components: hoods, millwork, doors, seals, etc.
• Follow site logistics, safety, and onboarding procedures.

Skills

Read drawings

Work to tolerance

Crew leadership

Own basic hand tools

Education

HS diploma or GED

Tools

Forklift

Scissor lift

Welders

Plasma cutters

Job description

You already know the trade. We'll pay you for knowing it.

We're growing the install division and looking for an experienced installer — someone who can run a job without being walked through it.

$21–$24/hour, based on what you bring. Overtime available. Paid every other Friday. We have a defined pay ladder and we promote off it — raises come with skill, not with time served.

Daily per diem, tax-free, on your card the day you leave — not reimbursed later. Your own hotel room, single occupancy. Crews travel in a company vehicle — you don't put miles on your own or pay for fuel.

How our jobs actually run

You've worked places where the plans didn't show up and the truck wasn't stocked. Here's how it goes here.

Plans get pulled before the job. Daily inventory is checked against the install. Specs and submittals are reviewed against what's actually on site, not assumed. The crew gets picked up and the day's expectations get set before anyone touches a tool. Trucks are maintained on a schedule. Per diem is dispersed to the crew, not chased down afterward. Status and job-site hours close out before the shift ends.

If that reads like basic competence, good. It isn't universal, and you already know that.

Travel is required. No exceptions.

Arizona and the surrounding Southwest — mostly Nevada, New Mexico, and Southern California, occasionally further. Monday through Friday, roughly half the month, with occasional weekend work. About 45 hours on travel weeks.

There is no local-only version of this job. If that's a dealbreaker, we'd rather not waste your time or ours.

Tired of outage work? Six weeks on, four weeks waiting, no benefits, no ladder. This is steady year-round W-2, 401(k) with 6% match, and somewhere to go from here.

What you'd run

Crews here are two to four people, usually three. You'd travel with the same guys and own the job start to finish. Family-run outfit, and it runs like one — we hire people who stay.

Hoods and wall flashing. Walk-in panel systems, doors, seals. Cook lines set, leveled, anchored. Millwork, casework, booth and seating scribed to field conditions. Stainless field welds and polishing. Off placement drawings, specs, and rough-in dimensions. Punch list and turnover.

Restaurants and chain rollouts, hotels and resorts, casinos, stadiums, airports, hospitals, schools and universities, fire stations, military and government, industrial dining, design-build concepts. No two the same.

Is this you?

• 3+ years hands-on in construction or a skilled trade.
• You read drawings and work to tolerance without supervision.
• You can be away overnight, Mon–Fri, about half of every month.
• Valid license, clean record, own hand tools.

All four, or this isn't the one.

What we're looking for:

Previous construction or trade experience is required. Commercial kitchen experience is not — that part we'll teach you.

• 3+ years in a finish trade — commercial kitchen equipment, walk‑in refrigeration, millwork and cabinetry, casework and fixtures, booth and seating, stainless fabrication, or commercial remodel.
• Confident with placement drawings, specs, and rough-in dimensions.
• Strong with hand and power tools; forklift and scissor lift.
• Has led a crew, or been the person everyone asks.
• Valid license, clean record, insurable.
• Own basic hand tools — we provide every large and specialty tool including welders, plasma cutters, and lifts.
• HS diploma or GED, or equivalent military or practical experience.
• Lift 70, push 100, ladders and lifts, active construction sites in any weather.

You don't need kitchen equipment on your resume. If you've run millwork, casework, fixture, or commercial remodel crews, the skills carry — drawings, tolerances, scribing to field conditions, finishing clean. We'll teach you the equipment.

Pluses:

• forklift certification, OSHA 10/30, MIG or TIG welding, stainless fabrication, Spanish/English bilingual.

Benefits:

401(k) with 6% company match. Health, dental, vision, life, HSA. PTO and 8 paid holidays. Forklift and lift certification you keep. We pay for your Level 1 Fingerprint Clearance Card. Benefits begin the 1st of the month after 60 days.

Who we are:

Building commercial kitchens since 2004. Licensed, bonded, and insured, with multiple crews running year round. Part of the Arizona Restaurant Supply family — ranked #26 among the 100 largest foodservice equipment dealers in the country by Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazine's 2026 Distribution Giants study, and the only Arizona company on the list. Tucson showroom, Tempe fabrication plant. We build the equipment and we install it.

This is a finish trade. It requires extreme attention to particulars and completion of projects down to the last detail. Day in and day out, Innovative installers are expected to be better than the other companies that do similar work.

Our mission statement is simple. Be the Best. If you are the best, join our team.

Background check, drug screen, and MVD record check before start. Innovative Installations participates in E‑Verify. After a job offer, you'll complete Form I-9 and standard onboarding paperwork, including direct deposit setup.

Equal opportunity employer. All applicants considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status.

A note on job scams: we will never ask you for payment, bank details, or your Social Security number as part of applying or interviewing. Those come only after a job offer, through our normal onboarding — never by email or text from a stranger.

Application questions:

• This position requires overnight travel, Mon–Fri, about half of every month. Hotel and daily per diem covered. Can you commit to that?
• How many years of hands‑on construction, trade, or mechanical work do you have — and doing what, specifically?
• Have you held a job before that required overnight travel? Where, and how long?
• Do you have your own basic hand tools, or would you need to get set up?
• Reliable transportation to Tempe for early morning departures?
• Valid driver's license, no major violations in 3 years?
• Anything that would prevent you passing a drug screen?