Airbus has posted another round of hourly job openings tied to its A320 final assembly line under construction at Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, giving South Alabama job seekers a fresh set of positions to apply for even though actual hiring isn’t expected to begin until early 2015.
The latest postings include final assembly line tool shop attendants, with starting hourly training pay set at $13.50, and flight line technicians, who start at $16.50 an hour during training. Airbus is also hiring ground test inspectors, a higher-skilled role with training pay set at $20.50 an hour. All three positions require six to nine months of training abroad before employees begin working on the Mobile line.
Tool shop attendants will be responsible for the inventory, inspection and maintenance of manufacturing tools, and candidates need a high school diploma or equivalent along with at least three years of experience in logistics or tool management in a manufacturing setting. Flight line electrical and avionics technicians will handle installation, testing and maintenance of aircraft electrical and avionics systems, while flight line mechanical technicians will cover mechanical, hydraulic, sheet metal and composite systems. Both technician roles require a high school diploma and at least five years of relevant military or vocational aviation experience, with the electrical role requiring a valid FCC license and the mechanical role requiring an airframe and powerplant license.
Ground test inspectors, meanwhile, will plan and carry out ground tests to confirm aircraft systems meet design specifications, and Airbus is looking for candidates with at least five years of experience, ideally as an avionics or quality test engineer with an international aviation company.
The postings are part of the buildout of Airbus’s first U.S. final assembly line, a $600 million project at Mobile Aeroplex expected to begin production in 2015 and deliver its first Mobile-built aircraft the following year. Once fully ramped up, the plant is projected to employ around 1,000 workers and produce between 40 and 50 single-aisle A320-family aircraft annually by 2018, a milestone company officials say will help Airbus keep pace with a substantial worldwide order backlog for the popular jet.
Beyond the newly posted roles, Airbus says it continues to actively recruit for several other positions connected to the Mobile project, including maintenance technicians, final assembly line quality inspectors, ground handling technicians, aircraft structure installers, cabin interior installers, electrical installers and a business systems analyst.
All hiring and pre-employment training for the A320 line is coordinated through the Alabama Industrial Development Training program, which manages job postings for the project as new positions open. For Mobile-area residents eyeing a role in advanced manufacturing, the AIDT website remains the central resource for tracking new openings as the assembly line moves closer to full operation.