Manufacturing Welding Foreman

Manufacturing Welding Foreman – Revised & Clarified Job Description

Location: Ogden, UT
Reports To: Shop Supervisor
Works With: Manufacturing Project Manager, Design & Detailing, Quality, Maintenance
Primary Function: Directly lead and manage daily welding and fabrication operations on the shop floor to ensure safe, timely, accurate, and efficient production of structural and specialty steel.

The Welding Foreman is the primary on-floor leader responsible for executing the daily production plan, ensuring work is performed safely, meeting quality requirements, and maintaining consistent throughput. This position requires strong technical welding experience, clear decision-making, and the ability to guide a team toward predictable performance. The foreman is a mentor and trainer to the team.

• Assign tasks to welders, fitters, and assemblers based on skill level, project priority, and shop capacity.
• Lead a daily standup huddle outlining job priorities, safety concerns, material needs, and required coordination with parts of production.
• Communicate expectations to the production team concerning scheduling and workload planning for the current day and coming week(s).
• Maintain situational control of the shop floor—adjust priorities when necessary without compromising safety or quality—materials arrive late, drawings change, or other issues emerge.
• Ensure work is completed according to drawings and other fabrication instructions provided, on schedule, and according to the published sequence.

• Ensuring welding leads and their teams correctly interpret drawings, comply with AISC/AWS requirements, and follow fabrication details.
• Verifying that layout, fit-up, welding, and finishing work are performed accurately and in compliance with applicable codes and HHI standards.
• Monitoring work quality of welding teams identifying issues early, and escalating issues as needed.
• Enforcing safety requirements and equipment-use policies, ensuring leads model and reinforce these expectations.
• Coaching, developing, and evaluating welding leads and their crews, including documentation training progress and related non-conformances.

• Submitting a concise daily production report that summarizes work completed, work in progress, delays, and any potential impacts to the production schedule.
• Communicating personnel issues, performance concerns, and staffing needs that may affect throughput or safety.
• Reporting daily and weekly material usage, equipment needs, drawing redlines, and production non-conformances.
• Attending weekly updates on upcoming workload, manpower requirements, and anticipated bottlenecks.
• Participating in planning meetings prepared with accurate status updates and constraints that affect sequencing, deadlines, or resource allocation.

• Minimum 5-years welding/fabrication experience, including structural steel.
• ficient reading and interpreting shop drawings, weld symbols, and fabrication notes.
• Compet with tools (oxy-fuel cutting, grinders, layout tools, aerial lifts, etc.).
• Current welding journeyman certificate or willingness to obtain journeyman status through the HHI welding apprenticeship program.
• Ability to operate on a computer within Excel and similar programs.
• Ability to coach, discipline, and develop personnel.
• Ability to work hands-on and lead by example.
• Strong welding math skills and ability to calculate dimensions as needed.

• Minimum 2-years in a leadership or lead welder/foreman role.
• Strong working knowledge of AWS D1.1, AISC fabrication requirements, and related standards.
• Experience in lean manufacturing or process improvement, i.e. white or green belt training.
• AWS welding certifications.
• Training certification(s) from an accredited technical school.
• Willingness to complete HHI’s journeyman-level apprenticeship program.
• Experience reviewing models and working with a design team.
• OSHA training certificate – OSHA 10 or 30