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Self-paced online courses let you enroll and begin the same day, with no waiting for a semester. From there: technician, lead, supervisor, engineer.
What does a technician actually do all day?
Pick a role. Watch someone do it. See what it pays in Dallas-Fort Worth and who's hiring. No sign-up to look around.
Every wage figure on this page comes from federal data and links to its source. Dallas-Fort Worth numbers, not national averages. See every source.
Why this path
Start earning
Start earning while others are still deciding.
- Tuition-free programs in DFW
- [##]
- People in DFW already in the work
- [#,###]
The ceiling
Some of Dallas-Fort Worth's best-paid careers start with a certificate.
Get hired on the certificate. Add the degree while you're earning.
- Top 10%, instrumentation
- $103,880
- Top 10%, mechatronics
- $93,340
Step 1Not sure where to start?
Answer 10 questions. We'll point you at a role.
Ten questions about how you like to work, not what you already know. Takes about five minutes.
No email required. No follow-up sequence. Retake it as often as you want.
Question 1 of 10
Something breaks and nobody knows why. How do you feel?
0of 20
Score
Your result
Result text appears here.
Roles to explore
Tap a role to see what the job is like.
Tip
Step 2Role Finder
Which technician role fits you best?
Tell us what you like to work on and where you like to work. We'll match you with a technician role and show you what the job is really like.
No email required. Retake it as often as you want.
Question 1 of 10
The Role Finder isn't available right now. Please try again in a few minutes.
Back to your quiz resultsThe four roles
Four roles DFW plants hire into constantly.
Different days, different tools, overlapping skills. Train toward one and you haven't locked yourself out of the others.
DFW median pay
$63,380
- Texas median
- $61,930
- Top 10% in DFW
- $93,210
- Jobs in DFW
- [#,###]
The largest of the four by a wide margin.
Most hiring now
Maintenance Technician
When a line goes down, you're who they call.
Diagnose it, fix it, get production moving, then find the problem before it happens again.
Tuition help in DFW
[Which DFW colleges cover tuition for industrial maintenance, and under which program.]
Growing 22% by 2034
Across Texas, about 6,380 openings a year.
Typical entry
Technical college certificate or diploma.
Where it goes next
This is the door most technicians come in through, and it opens onto everything: robotics, hydraulics, electrical and circuitry, controls. You don't have to know which specialty you want on day one. You'll find out on the floor, and the skilling is there when you do.
DFW median pay
$59,830
- Texas median
- $59,180
- Top 10% in DFW
- $81,930
Machinist Technician
You make the part that didn't exist this morning.
Program and run CNC equipment to cut metal to spec, measured in thousandths of an inch. Read the drawing, set the tooling, hold the tolerance, prove it with instruments.
Programming pays more than running. Same shop, same machines. The jump is the programming.
Dallas-Fort Worth medians · BLS OEWS, May 2025
Tuition help in DFW
[Which DFW colleges cover tuition for precision machining, and under which program.]
Where you'll work
Aerospace, automotive, defense, heavy equipment.
Why people choose it
You hold the finished thing in your hand at the end of the shift. Precision work, visible results, and a skill that travels to any plant in any state.
DFW median pay
$52,160
- Texas median
- $54,460
- Top 10% in DFW
- $93,340
Robotics Technician
Somebody has to install it, teach it, and fix it at 2 a.m. That's you.
Set up, program, and maintain the automated cells and robotic arms running the line. When the robot stops, you're the reason it starts again.
Typical entry
Mechatronics or automation certificate, or maintenance experience plus controls training.
Where you'll work
Automotive, food and beverage, logistics, semiconductors.
The thing people get backwards
More automation has meant more technicians, not fewer. Every robot on a floor is a machine that needs a human who understands it. Everybody needs humans, even robots.
DFW median pay
$75,580
- Texas median
- $74,050
- Top 10% in DFW
- $103,880
Highest paid of the four
Instrumentation and Control Technician
You're the one who can read what the plant is telling you.
Calibrate and troubleshoot the sensors, transmitters, and control systems that keep a process inside spec: pressure, flow, temperature, level. Half diagnostic thinking, half hands-on.
About $12,000 a year more than maintenance
Most analytical of the group, and the skills carry into process control, automation, and reliability work.
Typical entry
Instrumentation, electrical, or automation certificate; strong overlap with maintenance experience.
Where you'll work
Chemicals, pulp and paper, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, energy.
Interested in something else? These four are the roles DFW plants hire into most, but there are 245+ technician roles across energy, aerospace, logistics, semiconductors and more.
Role taxonomy: National Technician Role Library, Technicians of America
DFW employers who hire technicians [confirm]
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What you get on every role
Same six things, every role.
No role page ships half-built. If it's listed, it's finished.
Day in the life
Real technician, real plant. Unnarrated where possible. No pitch.
Virtual plant tour
Walk the floor before you ever apply.
Pay and progression
Entry, mid, senior. Dallas-Fort Worth figures, cited.
Skills you need
O*NET-aligned, plain language, no jargon wall.
People doing it now
First-person, in their words.
Companies that hire it
Every DFW employer who hires the role, posting or not.
Companies that hire this role
Who hires this, whether or not they're posting today.
You're not choosing a job opening. You're choosing a career. So here's every DFW employer that hires into this role, posting or not.
If you're eighteen months into a two-year program, the question isn't who's hiring this week. It's whether these companies still need this role when you finish. That list is the answer.
Posting roles nowPartner employer
- Lockheed Martin
- Bell Textron
- Texas Instruments
- General Motors Arlington
- Raytheon
- Peterbilt
- Alcon
- Mary Kay
- Airbus Helicopters
- Toyota North America
[Posting status from the Manufacturing DFW job search, pulled MM/DD/YYYY. Until then no employer is marked as posting.] Employers appear here only once their profile clears the minimum bar: a company description and a working careers link. No empty profiles, no dead links.
Employer profiles
Look inside before you apply.
Video, plant tour, benefits, culture, upcoming open houses, and what they're hiring for right now. Employers write and update these themselves, so you're reading them, not us.
Freshness, honestly. Each profile and recruiter contact shows a "last confirmed" date, and every one has a "report an out-of-date contact" link. Employers own their own information. If something's stale, tell us and we'll chase it.
Find your role
Two ways to search.
Most sites only work in one direction. If you're mid-program, "what can I do with this" is the actual question.
Know the job you want?
Pick the role, see the skills, find the training, see who hires for it.
Already have a credential?
Tell us what you've earned, or what you're halfway through, and we'll show you every role it qualifies you for. Including ones you've never heard of.
Come see for yourself
Walk a plant floor. Ask anything. Nobody's recruiting you.
Open houses, plant tours, and info sessions across Dallas-Fort Worth. The lowest-commitment way to find out if a place feels right before you spend a dollar or a semester on it.
Found one that fits? Here's what it takes.
Skills needed, training that matches, what it costs. And free: your match score against real openings near you. A number, not a maybe.
PlaceholderActual match screenAn 8 to 12 second silent loop recorded from the live match flow. Static frame on mobile and with reduced motion.