Welders and Shipfitters Wanted as S23 Plans 414 Ship Repair Jobs in Newport News

S23 Holdings plans to create 414 jobs in Newport News as part of a $180 million expansion of its River Port ship repair facility, and the skilled trades lead its list of roles. The company expects the jobs to include welding, shipfitting, electrical, machining and coatings roles, alongside project management, quality and administrative staff. The yard's anchor tenant, East Coast Repair and Fabrication, already performs ship repair and modernization work for the US Navy from the site. At Metaintro we read job announcements like this one against the employer's own listings and the local training pages, because that is where a worker finds out what the job asks for and how to get in. Here is what the expansion is, what the trade roles require, what they pay in the region and how a newcomer can train into one.

How Many Jobs Is S23 Adding in Newport News, and What Kind?

The headline figure is 414 jobs, unveiled by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership on Tuesday, September 22. The company expects those jobs to include welding, shipfitting, electrical, mechanical, machining, preservation and coatings work, as well as project management, quality, administrative and other support functions.

A slice of the total is about teaching, not only building. The jobs also include training-related positions tied to the Hampton Roads Maritime Training Academy, a nonprofit founded by the S23 chief executive. So the count includes training roles as well as trade and support jobs.

The work itself is waterfront ship repair. S23 Holdings and River Port anchor tenant East Coast Repair and Fabrication, which does ship repair and modernization work for the US Navy, will stay at the facility and will run the new shiplift. The company's stated aim is to pursue larger and more complex projects for the Navy and commercial maritime customers.

What Is Being Built at River Port, and When Will It Be Ready?

The site is the company's 84-acre River Port facility at 1201 Terminal Ave. The centerpiece is a shiplift system with supporting infrastructure, including new piers built to carry it.

Production space grows too. The project adds 48,000 square feet of production space, bringing covered production space to approximately 68,000 square feet, and expands fabrication, machining, blasting and coating and vessel repair capabilities. Those capabilities line up with the trades the company named in its hiring plan.

The timeline is long, and it matters for anyone planning a career move. The project is in the engineering and development phase, construction on the shiplift piers is expected to start in the first quarter of 2027, and the company expects the shiplift and its infrastructure to be operational in late 2028. The company may also put up more manufacturing buildings in the next year or two. The announcement does not give a hiring schedule for the new roles.

"The addition of the OmniLift shiplift and supporting infrastructure will allow us to take on larger and more complex ship repair projects," in the words of the S23 chief executive, quoted in the Virginia Business report.

What Does a Shipfitter Job at the Yard Actually Ask For?

The company's own listing is the clearest guide. The Ship Fitter 1st Class listing for Newport News is full-time and describes a shipfitter with approximately 4 or more years of experience laying out, positioning, aligning and fitting parts of structural metal products under regular supervision.

The daily tasks are specific. A fitter positions, aligns, fits and welds parts into complete units following blueprints, tack-welds fitted parts together, marks bending and cutting lines and studies engineering drawings to plan the sequence of work. The listing also expects advanced use of plasma cutters and oxy fuel torches, and advanced tack welding in overhead, vertical and horizontal shipboard positions.

The formal requirements are short. The listing asks for a high school diploma or GED and 4 or more years of related experience or training, or an equivalent combination, plus the ability to gain access to military installations and to pass a drug test and background check.

The physical side is spelled out plainly. The job is physically demanding, with steep stairwells and vertical ladders to climb, 50 pounds to lift regularly and exposure to loud noise, fumes, smoke and extreme temperatures. Hard hats, ear protection, safety shoes, respirators and gloves are part of the kit.

Which Other Trades Is the Company Hiring for Right Now?

On its current careers page, East Coast Repair and Fabrication lists several Newport News roles beyond fitting. They include an Outside Machinist 1st Class and an Electrician 1st Class, a Safety Inspector II, a Subcontract Manager and a Crew Foreman, some of them marked for Warwick Maritime Solutions. These are current openings, and the page does not say whether they count toward the new hiring plan.

The experience bar is similar across the trades. The machinist listing asks for a machinist with 5 or more years of experience on conventional and numerical control machines, and the electrician listing asks for 4 or more years of electrical work in a shipyard or industrial setting. If your background is in machining, our guide to machinist certification explains what a credential changes in a job search.

Benefits are listed on the same page. The company offers health, vision and dental insurance, life insurance including dependents, short and long term disability, a 401K plan, legal resources, an employee assistance program, paid time off and paid holidays. The listings we reviewed did not print hourly rates.

What Do Welders Earn in Hampton Roads?

Since the company does not post pay, the best local benchmark comes from the region's own training pages. For the Hampton Roads Workforce Region, the marine welding course page at Paul D. Camp Community College lists 2026 wages for welding, cutter, solderer and brazer careers of Entry Level $48,500, Mean $64,400 and Experienced $72,300.

The same page gives a sense of the job pool. Drawing on a JobsEQ occupation report from July 2026, the page puts total employment for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers in the region at 2,610 as of the first quarter of 2026, with projected annual demand for 229 new entrants into the occupation. The announcement does not say how many of the planned new jobs are welding roles, so it is not yet clear how much this project adds to that pool.

Treat those figures as a regional guide for one trade, not an offer from S23. For a wider view of how welding pay rises with skill and certification, our welder salary guide walks through what moves the number.

How Can You Train for These Jobs if You Are New to Ship Repair?

The region already runs a shared training network for these trades. The Hampton Roads Maritime Training System, powered by the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, trains welders, electricians, machinists, pipefitters and shipfitters, and its partner employers represent 85% of all maritime jobs in Hampton Roads.

Its results are worth knowing before you enroll. The system reports that since launching in 2024 more than 6,650 workers have enrolled, with an overall completion rate above 87%. By trade, completion runs at 85% for welding, 91% for electrical, 96% for outside machinist and 93% for pipefitting and shipfitting.

One concrete entry point is the council's marine welding course at Paul D. Camp Community College. The entry marine welder course is 120 hours over three weeks, Monday to Friday from 8:00AM to 4:00PM at the college's Suffolk trades center, with an AWS certification test on the last day that requires travel to Hampton. Upcoming classes at that entry level start on October 5, November 2 and November 30, 2026.

The price depends on eligibility. The course page lists tuition of $3,900, or $1,300 with the Workforce Credential Grant, and it also lists free training, hiring events and interviews through the council's program, which it values at over $9,000 with up to $2,250 for supportive services such as childcare and transportation.

Entry requirements are modest. You need to be 18 or older with a high school diploma or GED, registered for selective service where applicable and authorized to work in the US, and pre-screening includes a background check, drug screening and physical at no cost to you.

What Is the Hampton Roads Maritime Training Academy?

This is the part of the announcement aimed most directly at newcomers. The academy is a nonprofit founded by the S23 chief executive that is targeting an opening in the first quarter of 2027, and some of the new jobs are training positions associated with it.

Its purpose is to train people in the skills East Coast Repair and Fabrication, its affiliated companies and the wider Hampton Roads maritime industry need, while creating direct pathways for individuals seeking careers in the maritime trades. In other words, the academy is designed as a direct pathway into maritime trade careers.

The announcement also counts training-related positions tied to the academy among the new jobs, but it does not say what experience those roles will require.

"We are so excited that this company is going to double its footprint and create a 48-thousand square foot production facility," in the words of the Newport News mayor, quoted in the WTKR station report.

How Does This Compare With S23's First Newport News Project?

This is not the company's first promise to the city. In June 2020, then Governor Ralph Northam announced that S23 Holdings and its affiliates would invest $64.4 million and create 332 new jobs in Newport News, after Virginia competed with Florida and Puerto Rico for the project.

That first project set up the same address. The 2020 plan covered waterfront property at 1201 Terminal Avenue and nearby property at 1511 Harbor Lane, including rehabilitation of Piers 14 and 15 and a new manufacturing facility and offices. At the time, the company named access to an underutilized workforce and its wish to work with the Southeast Community to create jobs and provide shipyard training as reasons for choosing the city.

That history is useful for a job seeker, because in 2020 the company named new jobs and shipyard training for the Southeast Community as reasons for choosing the city, and the new plan again includes training-related positions.

What Public Money Is Behind the Project, and Why Does It Matter to Workers?

The state has put grants on the table. The governor approved a $2 million grant from the Commonwealth's Opportunity Fund to assist the city, plus $2 million more from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, a performance-based grant that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia manufacturers.

One piece of the state support is tied directly to new hires. The state will back S23's job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consulting and cash reimbursements for human resources costs after a company has had new employees on the payroll for at least 90 days. In plain terms, that part of the state support is paid only once new hires have been working for a while.

The wider local market is busy too. Newport News is seeing growth in ship repair and building, and in July HII won nearly $77 billion in contracts to build more submarines, including at Newport News Shipbuilding. That means S23 is expanding in a city where the ship repair and building industry continues to grow.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

Our take is that this is a strong, slow opportunity for trades workers, and the worker who trains now will be ready when the new capacity comes online. The expansion is sizeable at 414 planned jobs, but the shiplift is not expected to run until late 2028, so do not expect every one of those roles to be posted this fall.

Being ready counts. The head of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council previously told WTKR that the regional training system produces 5,000 to 6,000 people per year, so many local applicants will hold similar training. The current trade listings for fitters, electricians and machinists ask for four or five years of experience, so the open trade roles today are aimed at experienced hands.

Here is what we would do:

• Pick a trade the yard names. Welding, shipfitting, electrical, machining and coatings are all on the company's list, so choose the one closest to skills you already have.
• Get a credential first. A three week marine welding course with an AWS test is a fast, concrete way to show a shipyard you can do the work.
• Clear the access checks early. The current listings require passing a drug test and background check and gaining access to military installations, so sort out anything that could slow that down.
• Apply to today's openings if you have the years. Experienced fitters, electricians and machinists can apply on the company's careers page now rather than waiting for the expansion.
• Watch for the academy. The academy is designed to create direct pathways into maritime trade careers, and it is targeting an opening in the first quarter of 2027.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs is S23 Holdings creating in Newport News?

A: The company expects to create 414 jobs in welding, shipfitting, electrical, mechanical, machining, preservation and coatings, plus management, quality, training and support roles.

Q: Do I need experience to get a shipfitter job at the yard?

A: The current Ship Fitter 1st Class listing asks for a high school diploma or GED and 4 or more years of related experience or training, so newcomers can start through regional marine trade training.

Q: How much do welders make in Hampton Roads?

A: A Hampton Roads community college course page lists 2026 regional welding wages of $48,500 entry level and $64,400 mean, rising to $72,300 for experienced welders.

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