Journeyman Operator, Heavy Equipment

Journeyman Operator, Heavy Equipment

Location: Alaska      

Employment Class: Full-time, temporary

FLSA Classification:  Non-Exempt Hourly (Davis Bacon)

Position Summary

Potawatomi Defense Operations (a federal government contractor) is seeking a qualified Journeyman Operator, Heavy Equipment will operate one or several types of power construction equipment, such as motor graders, bulldozers, scrapers, compressors, pumps, derricks, shovels, tractors, excavators, and front-end loaders to excavate, move, and grade earth, erect structures, pour concrete or other hard surface pavement. This position requires 75% travel; hours worked while in travel status could be up to twelve (12) hours per day.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

•    Operate various heavy equipment including excavators, backhoes, and front end loaders on environmental and construction job sites.
•    Ability to operate precisely and safely in close proximity to others.
•    Requires the ability to properly wear, use, and maintain personal respirator equipment and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) on HAZWOPER sites.
•    Monitor job site for hazards and challenge unauthorized personnel on job site and maintain a safe working environment.
•    Maintain constant awareness of surroundings including eye contact with ground personnel and recognize job site specific hazards.
•    Possess good communication skills as well as take direction from environmental staff in all phases of field operations.
•    Maintain safe excavation areas to include benching, shoring, and barricading as necessary to allow access by site personnel when conditions permit entry.
•    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, road graders, and backhoes.
•    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, crawler tractors, power cranes, shovels, graders, and related equipment.
•    Drive and maneuver equipment 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.
•    Operate tractors and bulldozers to perform tasks such as clearing land, mixing sludge, trimming backfills, and building roadways and parking lots.
•    Check fuel supplies at sites to ensure adequate availability.
•    Perform routine maintenance in field as needed or directed.
•    Connect hydraulic hoses, belts, mechanical linkages, or power takeoff shafts to tractors.
•    Operate loaders to pull out stumps, rip asphalt or concrete, rough-grade properties, bury refuse, or perform general cleanup.
•    Select and fasten bulldozer blades or other attachments to tractors using hitches.
•    Test atmosphere for adequate oxygen and explosive conditions when working in confined spaces.
•    Operate compactors, scrapers, and rollers to level, compact, and cover refuse at disposal grounds.
•    Talk to clients and study instructions, plans, and diagrams in order to establish work requirements.
•    Signal operators to guide movement of tractor-drawn machines.
•    Operate road watering, oiling, and rolling equipment, and street sealing equipment, such as chip spreaders.
•    Perform specialized work using equipment such as pile drivers, dredging rigs, drillers, and concrete pumpers.
•    Push other equipment when extra traction or assistance is required.
•    Drive tra