Equipment Operator

Summary

Operate one or several types of power construction equipment, such as excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, compactors, articulated dump trucks, or front-end loaders to excavate, move, and grade earth. Majority of earth-moving activities will be associated with environmental contamination. Operate equipment with both CAT and John Deere controls. Maintain and perform minor equipment repair in addition to other duties.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

•  Learn and follow safety regulations.
•  Take actions to avoid potential hazards and obstructions, such as utility lines, other equipment, other workers, and falling objects.
•  Adjust hand wheels and depress pedals to control attachments, such as blades, buckets, scrapers, and swing booms.
•  Start engines, move throttles, switches, and levers, and depress pedals to operate machines such as bulldozers, trench excavators, wheel loaders, and backhoes.
•  Locate underground services, such as pipes and wires, prior to beginning work.
•  Monitor operations to ensure that health and safety standards are met.
•  Align machines, cutter heads, or depth gauge makers with reference stakes and guidelines or ground or position equipment, following hand signals of other workers.
•  Load and move dirt, rocks, equipment, and materials, using trucks, shovels, graders, or related equipment.
•  Drive and maneuver equipment equipped with blades in successive passes over working areas to remove topsoil, vegetation, and rocks, and to distribute and level earth or terrain.
•  Coordinate machine actions with other activities, positioning or moving loads in response to hand or audio signals from crew members.

Minimum Qualifications

• High school diploma or general education degree (GED).
• 5+ years of experience working as an equipment operator.
• Trained and certified to operate the equipment assigned with a minimum of 4 years of equipment specific experience.
• Experience following plans and stakes for cut and fill.
• Must be able to sit/operate heavy equipment up to 100% of shift.
• Ability to travel to project sites.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum four (4) years of work experience at environmental construction sites.
• Experience working on military construction projects. Experience working on environmental, remediation projects/sites.
• Current 40-Hour HAZWOPER or 8-Hour HAZWOPER Refresher.
• Demonstrated experience operating excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, compactors, articulated dump trucks, and front-end loaders.

California Salary Range 35 - 45 USD