Street Maintenance Asphalt: Maintenance Operator I

The City of Salem is seeking motivated candidates to join our Asphalt Street Maintenance Team. This is an exciting opportunity for individuals with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) or the ability to obtain one within six months of hire. It's also ideal for those with experience in the construction trades who prefer local work, as most assignments are within a 10-mile radius.

Make and impact:
Join the City of Salem’s Asphalt Street Maintenance Team and play a vital role in keeping our community’s streets safe and well-maintained. As a Maintenance Operator I, you’ll contribute to essential public infrastructure projects, operate a variety of construction equipment, and ensure roadways remain in top condition for Salem residents. With competitive pay, excellent benefits, and a schedule that supports work-life balance, this is your chance to build a lasting career while making a real difference in your city. Take pride in work that keeps Salem moving!

What you will do:
A Maintenance Operator I will install, repair, replace new or existing public works infrastructure such as streets and/or sidewalks. Work requires candidates to be in public right of ways such as streets, perform traffic control, and be in contact with citizens.
As a member of a crew, or individually, assists in the maintenance and construction of Public Works utility facilities such as:

• Assist in installing improvements, maintaining existing facilities, repairing a variety of right-of-way improvements.
• Install signing, coning, or barriers as instructed, or flag traffic.
• General labor to include lifting, pulling, shoveling, raking, and hand brooming.
• Haul asphalt, gravel, or spoils to and from the work location.
• Clean tools, and equipment and returns to appropriate locations after assignment is completed; ensure work site is clean, remove signing, barricades, or coning after project is completed.
• Operate power and hand tools in the course of work such as backpack blowers, plate compactors, cut-off saw, compressors, generators, jackhammers, pressure cleaners, hydraulic pumps and jacks, utilized in connection with work assignments.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Ability to work in inclement weather.

Construction Equipment Used:
Dump trucks, truck/trailer combinations, bobcats, loaders, forklifts, all sizes of street sweepers, asphalt paving machines, pavement breakers, pothole truck, crack sealers, backhoe, rollers, crane trucks, traffic control truck and/or specific equipment unique to the area of work assigned. Occasionally operate other heavy construction equipment such as graders, water truck, hot oil distributor or milling machine.

What can we offer you for all your hard work?Position Schedule:
September through April - 8 hour shifts Monday through Friday 0700-1530
May to August - 10 hour shifts Monday through Thursday 0600-1630.

Call back, standby and overtime may be required on a rotating basis.

What are the minimum qualifications?

• Must pass the pre-employment drug test (including marijuana).
• Must pass the pre-employment background check and reference check.
• Must have a valid Oregon Class A Commercial Driver’s license or must be able to obtain within six months from the start date.
• Must have a driving record that meets the City of Salem’s driving standard.
• One-year general maintenance, repair, paving, or construction experience in street right-of-way, street maintenance, public works facilities, utility systems, and public improvement.

Hiring managers do not have access to view resumes as part of the application review process, please make sure to give detailed information in your application that includes your experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities as requested in the supplemental questions and job advertisement.

What you will bring along:
The successful candidates will have knowledge and background in the paving industry and related equipment including main line paving, asphalt overlay, asphalt trench patching, shoulder work and street maintenance within the city infrastructure. This is a great opportunity for candidates that have a Commercial Driver License (CDL) and have worked in construction trades or underground utilities installation but do not want to travel.

Where can I find out more about the position?

About us:
The Public Works Department values employees and their professional development. If you are someone that takes pride in collaborating on innovative ideas, proactively responding to community needs, and being a good environmental and financial steward, we look forward to meeting you! The Public Works Department promotes a healthy work life balance, while maintaining the utmost dedication to the health, safety and welfare of our community, including our team!

The City of Salem is the second largest City in the State of Oregon. Located in the lush Willamette Valley, Salem is the capital city of Oregon with a population over 170,000. Centrally located, Salem is 47 miles south of Portland and an hour from the Cascade Mountains to the east and an hour from the ocean beaches to the west. Salem is an exceptional community for living and working with exciting new and comfortable well-established neighborhoods and carefully preserved historic buildings.
A full-service City, Salem has eight primary departments: Community Services, Finance, Fire, Enterprise Services, Legal, Police, Public Works, and Community and Urban Development. Several departments also have functional divisions within their department. The City has five labor unions and employs roughly 1,350 talented and dedicated staff members. The Urban Renewal Agency and the Salem Housing Authority are separate municipal corporations. The Agency contracts with the City for services and the Authority is led by the Housing Administrator within the Urban Development department.

How can I apply?
The City of Salem invites individuals of all diverse communities and backgrounds to apply for our available job opportunities as we strive to provide the best service to everyone. The City of Salem is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all and has a culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe that by welcoming differences, encouraging new ideas and views, listening to and learning from each other, we are better able to serve the community.

Hiring managers do not have access to view resumes as part of the application review process, please make sure to include how you meet the qualifications outlined in the class specification in your application.

Applicants that meet the minimum qualifications as outlined above but not selected for this position may be placed on an eligibility list, and candidates may be hired from the list. Eligibility lists are valid for six months. The City will send email notifications to eligible candidates about potential hiring opportunities so please ensure your email settings accept our system generated email notifications.

You may subscribe for automatic notification of job openings at the City through the Job Interest Cards – sign up today!