Senior Certified Welding Inspector III (AWS SCWI) — Durham, NC

Construction Material Testing; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 69,000 - 94,000; Full time

Job summary

Construction Material Testing is seeking a Senior Certified Welding Inspector III to lead welding quality programs on multiple projects, supervising CWIs and inspectors while ensuring code compliance and technical integrity.

This role demands expertise in welding procedures, qualifications, and NDT oversight, with the authority to resolve complex indications and interface with engineers, fabricators, and building officials on welding matters.

Qualifications

• AWS SCWI or CWI with 8+ years of welding inspection leadership.
• Strong command of AWS D1.1, D1.5, D1.8, ASME IX, and API 1104.
• Experience writing welding quality programs for structural, industrial, or pipeline work.
• Proven ability to work with engineers, fabricators, and building officials.

Responsibilities

• Write, review, and approve welding quality plans, inspection procedures, and NDT procedures.
• Supervise CWIs and Welding Inspectors across projects; review reports.
• Approve WPS, PQR, and welder qualification packages; witness procedure qualification testing.
• Audit fabricators and erectors' welding quality systems; qualify NDT subcontractors.
• Resolve disputed indications and repairs with engineers of record; represent company in welding quality reviews.

Skills

SCWI

CWI

Inspection leadership

Welding codes

NDT knowledge

Education

NDT Level II/III

CWI with leadership experience

Tools

NDT methods

UT

RT

Job description

A Senior Certified Welding Inspector III is the welding quality authority across projects: writing and reviewing welding quality programs, supervising CWIs and Welding Inspectors, reviewing and approving procedure and welder qualifications, auditing fabricators, resolving disputed indications, and representing the company to engineers of record, owners, and building officials on welding matters. An AWS Senior Certified Welding Inspector (SCWI) is preferred; a CWI with eight or more years of documented inspection leadership is considered.

Responsibilities: Write, review, and approve welding quality plans, inspection procedures, and NDT procedures; Supervise CWIs and Welding Inspectors across projects; review their reports and calibrate their calls; Approve WPS, PQR, and welder qualification packages; witness or direct procedure qualification testing; Audit fabricators and erectors' welding quality systems; qualify NDT subcontractors; Resolve disputed indications and repairs with engineers of record; represent the company in welding quality reviews.

Qualifications: AWS SCWI, or current CWI with 8+ years of welding inspection including supervision of other inspectors; Command of AWS D1.1/D1.5/D1.8, ASME IX, and API 1104; NDT Level II or III in at least one method preferred; Experience writing welding quality programs for structural, industrial, or pipeline work; Credible with engineers, fabricators, and building officials; writes procedures people can follow.

What a week in this job looks like: The week is programs, people, and the hard calls: a fabricator audit before a steel package is released, a review of a CWI's reports that turned up an inconsistent acceptance standard, a procedure qualification you are witnessing for a new pipe alloy, and a disputed UT indication where the erector wants to grind and you want to see the scan. You still inspect — enough to keep your eye — but your leverage is in the standard every inspector on the program applies. You are the company's welding memory: which fabricators are reliable, which joint details cause trouble, and which codes changed this cycle.

Certifications, training, and where this leads: Senior Welding Inspector III is a senior technical seat. The path from here is director of steel and welding inspection for the practice, or quality management on the industrial programs where welding is the critical path.

Pay, schedule, and travel: Pay runs $50 to $68 an hour depending on certifications held, verified experience, and the program you are assigned to. Welding inspection follows the erector's and the fabricator's schedule: early starts, night shifts on some industrial work, and overtime when steel is going up. Texas positions are dispatched from the Sugar Land headquarters; project-site positions elsewhere are staffed on a project basis with travel and per diem as assigned, and the listing for your city says which one it is.

Safety, quality, and the standards we work under: Welding inspection is performed to the code the project specifies and reported under our documented AASHTO R18 quality system; on IBC special inspection projects the reports go to the building official under Chapter 17. Accept/reject decisions are made to the code, not to the schedule. The safety side is real: work at height, confined spaces, hot work, and active erection. Fall protection, confined-space, and site-specific training are provided and required.

We are an equal opportunity employer and consider every applicant without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status.