Senior Field Technician / Special Inspector — Chicago, IL

Construction Material Testing; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 36,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Certification reimbursement

Job summary

Construction Material Testing in Chicago seeks a Senior Technician to anchor large placements including structural concrete, deep foundations, masonry, and steel. You lead pours, mentor junior technicians, interface with engineers and building officials, and own the quality of the record on critical projects.

You will run fresh-concrete testing and IBC special inspections, document inspections, coordinate daily with superintendents and engineers, and support multi-state deployments on a project

Qualifications

• 3+ years CMT or special inspection experience.
• ICC Reinforced Concrete or Soils, NICET Level II+, or ACI certifications.
• Comfortable owning the testing record on major placements.
• Willing to travel for defined project programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead fresh-concrete testing and special inspection on structural work; Perform and document inspections per project IBC special inspection programs; Mentor and check junior field technicians.
• Coordinate daily with superintendents, engineers, and officials; Support multi-state industrial deployments on a project basis.

Skills

Leadership

Record-keeping

Field inspection

Mentoring

Education

ICC Reinforced Concrete

NICET Level II+

ACI field certifications

Job description

Senior technicians anchor our largest placements and special inspection scopes: structural concrete, deep foundations, masonry, and steel. You will lead pours, mentor junior technicians, interface with engineers and building officials, and own the quality of the record on projects where the stakes are real.

Responsibilities

Lead fresh-concrete testing and special inspection on structural work; Perform and document inspections per project IBC special inspection programs; Mentor and check junior field technicians; Coordinate daily with superintendents, engineers, and officials; Support multi-state industrial deployments on a project basis.

Qualifications

3+ years CMT or special inspection experience; ICC Reinforced Concrete or Soils, NICET Level II+, or ACI certifications; Comfortable owning the testing record on major placements; Willing to travel for defined project programs.

What a week in this job looks like

You anchor the placements that keep project managers awake: mat pours that start at 3 a.m., post-tensioned decks, deep foundation observation, masonry and steel special inspection under an IBC program. You run the testing rhythm at the truck, direct junior technicians without leaving gaps in the record, and handle the conversation when a load reads out of spec, with the batch plant, the superintendent, and sometimes the engineer of record on the phone at once. You are also the person the record leans on. When a building official audits a special inspection file two years from now, it is your documentation that answers.

Certifications, training, and where this leads

This role expects a working certification stack: ICC Reinforced Concrete or Soils, NICET Level II or higher, ACI field certifications, or the experience that makes earning them fast. We pay for every certification you add, and we build your renewals into the schedule instead of leaving them to your weekends. From here the paths split by appetite: special inspection lead on structural programs, laboratory supervision, project management, or the traveling senior roles that anchor our multi-state industrial deployments. Senior technicians who can run a crew and a record at the same time do not stay at one level long.

Pay, schedule, and travel

Pay runs $26 to $38 per hour with overtime, and senior rates move with certifications and the scope you can own. Structural work follows pour schedules, which means early starts and long production days balanced by the slower weeks between phases. Texas-based seniors work metro projects out of Sugar Land. Deployment roles supporting national industrial programs are staffed on a defined project basis with travel and per-diem terms settled in writing before mobilization, and seniors who travel well are the most requested people we have.

Safety, quality, and the standards we work under

You will hold responsibility inside a licensed radiation safety program and a documented AASHTO R18 quality system, and you will be the one enforcing both on your crew. Pre-task planning, PPE discipline, and honest reporting are the floor, not the ceiling. Special inspection carries legal weight. We staff it, document it, and defend it accordingly, and we expect seniors to protect the record even when a schedule pushes back. You will also be the calibration point for the crew around you: checking a junior's cylinder technique before bad habits set, auditing a gauge standardization log on a random Tuesday, and teaching the difference between a result that is defensible and one that merely looks finished.

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.