Welder

Ames Hydraulics; Ames, Northern (IA, KY); Hybrid; USD 25,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid training

Job summary

Ames Hydraulics is hiring welders for a shop where no day is the same. From hydraulic cylinder rod repair to custom fabrication, you’ll read prints, weld with TIG and precision MIG, and own your work. Paid training is available for newcomers and experienced welders can take on higher-skill tasks.

Expect a real, varied day with opportunities to grow. The team values pride in the bead, punctuality, and ongoing learning, with autonomy and customer impact at the core.

Qualifications

• You can read a print. Paid training welder job if you are new; full-rate welder job if you are experienced.
• You show up on time, every day.
• Take pride in bead quality; aim for a beautiful weld, not just a weld that will hold.
• Be honest about what you can do; we would rather train you than have you fail a customer part.
• You want to learn and grow; welding jobs here have a ceiling that keeps going up for those who keep learning.

Responsibilities

• Read a print or learn to read one; training path for new hires.
• Show up on time every day.
• Focus on bead quality and precise welding.
• Be honest about capabilities to avoid damaging parts.
• Continue learning to advance in welding responsibilities.

Skills

Read prints

Punctuality

Bead quality

Honesty about capabilities

Willingness to learn

Tools

TIG welding

MIG welding

Plasma cutting

Job description

Welding jobs at Ames Hydraulics are for people who take pride in a clean bead and a straight joint. This is not a factory line where you weld the same part all day for a decade. Every day is different — one hour you might be repairing a cylinder rod, the next hour fabricating a custom bracket, the next welding up a trailer chassis crack for a farmer who needs it back for tomorrow’s harvest. If you are looking for welding jobs where the work actually matters and the environment is not soul-crushing, we are hiring.

Our welding jobs cover a wide skill spectrum. Entry-level welders in paid training work under a lead welder while they build their bead consistency and read prints. Experienced welders take on the harder fabrication and the higher-pressure repairs. Master welders own their bay and their book of returning customers. Whichever tier you fit, there is a welding job here worth showing up for.

The Kind Of Welding Jobs We Actually Do

• Hydraulic cylinder rod repair — TIG and precision MIG on high-strength steel rods. Every rod we save is a rod the customer does not have to buy new.
• Custom fabrication — brackets, mounts, guards, plates, weldments. Reading a print, cutting to size, laying it out, welding it up.
• Aluminum welding — trailer bodies, food-grade tanks, custom parts. Higher-skill welding jobs pay more here.
• Structural steel repair — bucket lifts, boom arms, dozer blades, backhoe attachments.
• Industrial steel products — guard rail, dock plates, bollards, self-dumping hoppers. Repeatable production runs when the schedule needs it.

What We Look For In Welder Applicants

Welding jobs at Ames Hydraulics reward the kind of person who wants to be great at welding — not the kind who wants a paycheck to show up. What that looks like in practice:

• You can read a print. Or you want to learn to. This is a paid training welder job if you are new; a full-rate welder job if you are experienced.
• You show up on time. Every day. Not most days.
• You care about the bead. When you strike an arc you are trying to lay a beautiful weld, not just a weld that will hold.
• You are honest about what you can do. If you have never done TIG on aluminum, say so. We would rather train you than have you fake it and destroy a customer part.
• You want to learn what you do not know. Welding jobs here have a ceiling that keeps going up for the people who keep learning.

Pay Range For Welding Jobs Here

Welding jobs at Ames Hydraulics pay in a range from $18 per hour on the paid-training end up to $45 per hour for experienced master welders. Where you land in that range depends on skill, speed, quality, and how much you take ownership of your work. Iowa BLS data confirms that this is a real, competitive range for welding jobs in central Iowa — and the top of our range is at the top of the market for the region. Details of our paid training path are on our paid training jobs page .

Culture — What Makes Welding Jobs Here Different

The reason people stay at welding jobs here for five, ten, twenty years is not the paycheck alone. It is what the paycheck buys — respect, autonomy, variety, and work that matters. Read more about the shop culture on our why-work-here page .

Typical Day For A Welder Here

A typical day at one of our welding jobs looks something like this. You clock in at 7 AM. You look at the job board — this morning is a hydraulic cylinder rod from a landscape contractor whose loader arm is dead until we get it back on the machine. The rod has a bent tip and a scored packing area. You clean it, straighten the tip in the press, and TIG-fill the score. You blend it flat, polish it, and it goes to the assembler to reinstall in the cylinder. Two hours of work saved that customer a several-thousand-dollar new cylinder purchase.

Mid-morning shifts to fabrication — a custom bracket a customer needs to mount an aftermarket toolbox on their service truck. You read the sketch, cut the plate on the plasma, notch the corners, weld it up, grind clean, and paint it. Small win.

Afternoon might be trailer work — a farmer’s gooseneck came in with a cross-member crack. You get it up on the lift, grind out the crack, weld it, add a gusset, and paint over. Farmer picks it up tomorrow morning ready for the field.

That is a normal day. Nothing dramatic. Real work, real customers, real welding — and you go home knowing exactly what you accomplished. That is the appeal of welding jobs here.

Josiah owns and operates Ames Hydraulics. He has worked on hydraulic and heavy equipment since he was 18, and every hydraulic cylinder his shop rebuilds is pressure tested before it ships back to the customer. More about Josiah