Automotive technician job description template (duties, requirements, pay line)

What a posting states is what a candidate has to go on: the scope of the work, the certification stance, the tool policy, the schedule and the pay.

Each is a block you can write deliberately, and the blocks below cover the four questions in the opening before the template assembles all of them.

Duties and responsibilities

Start from the work the hire owns in the first weeks, not from a generic list.

Decide which systems your bays actually see — brakes, steering and suspension, engine and drivability, electrical, heating and A/C — and write the duties around that scope, including where it ends: diagnostics only, or full repair ownership.

Keep the daily mechanics in the list too: road-testing before and after a repair, documenting findings and work performed on the repair order, recommending the work a customer declined, and keeping the bay and shop equipment in safe order.

Those lines tell a candidate how the shop runs, and they double as the standard you review against.

Name the vehicle mix and any specialty the hire grows into — domestic and import, cars and light trucks, fleet units, hybrids and EVs.

If the boundaries are still fuzzy, the automotive technician career guide walks the day-to-day work, the settings and the specialties before you commit them to a posting.

Required vs. preferred certifications and experience

Separate what the work itself demands from what your shop prefers.

The federal line is narrow: under Clean Air Act Section 609, anyone who repairs or services vehicle air conditioning for payment or bartering must be trained and certified by an EPA-approved program.

If the hire will touch A/C, that certification belongs in the requirements block, not the preferences.

ASE is the opposite case: ASE's own guide calls its certification voluntary.

Make it your shop's policy choice — required by your shop, preferred, or sponsored once the technician is aboard — and write the stance explicitly.

BLS notes that employers may require or prefer industry certifications and that some pay for them.

Write the experience floor honestly.

BLS describes how entry works: technicians without an automotive program usually need longer training and may start as trainee technicians, helpers or lubrication workers, while program graduates may need only a relatively short period of on-the-job training.

If you are hiring entry level and training for it, say so — the ramp is part of the deal, and the posting is the place to state it.

Tools, licence and physical requirements

Draw the tool line in the posting itself.

BLS describes the computerized diagnostic tools and the power tools — pneumatic wrenches, lathes, welding torches, jacks and hoists — as usually owned by employers, and its list stops there: hand tools are not addressed.

Where the hand-tool line sits, and whether you help with an allowance or a purchase program, is your policy; put it in the ad instead of saving it for the interview.

The licence line is the block you cannot borrow from a shop in another state.

Hawaii licenses individual mechanics through the Motor Vehicle Repair Industry Board, which issues Certified Mechanic, Registered Mechanic and combined Registered-and-Certified Mechanic credentials.

Michigan requires anyone who repairs motor vehicles for compensation to be certified by the Michigan Department of State for each repair category they perform.

In Florida, Miami-Dade County requires individuals doing repairs for a registered shop to register as certified or apprentice mechanics.

Broward County issues its own technician certification.

Outside those places, write the line only after confirming with your state motor-vehicle agency what applies to your shop — a competitor's licence line does not travel.

Write physical requirements as tasks, not measurements.

BLS describes the physical side of the occupation plainly: technicians may need to lift and maneuver heavy objects such as tires, usually stand for most of the day, work with greasy parts sometimes in uncomfortable positions, and may be exposed to fumes, chemicals and noise.

Turn that into your task lines — lift and position wheel assemblies, stand for most of a shift, work in bent or kneeling positions under vehicles and in engine bays.

Unless the employer can show an inquiry about height or weight is related to the job, the EEOC advises avoiding it, because such requirements tend to disproportionately exclude protected groups; a specific lifting limit is your shop's requirement to set, not a standard to inherit.

Finish the requirements block with the employment lines that are yours to set: a valid driver's licence where the role moves customer vehicles, and any background check or drug screening your shop runs as a condition of hire.

Once the blocks are written, the sequence around them — where to post, how to screen, what to verify before an offer — is its own job.

How to hire an automotive technician walks sourcing, screening and the offer; this page keeps to the posting itself.

How to write the pay and benefits line

Name the plan before the number.

Some repair shops pay technicians hourly while others pay based on the amount of work completed, and a candidate needs to know which one your range reflects; if new hires get a guarantee period while they ramp, say that here too.

Write the range as a good-faith estimate of what you reasonably expect to pay for the position on hire — California's statute defines the pay scale a posting must carry exactly that way, and it is a workable discipline for the line anywhere.

Keep the range closed: Minnesota's statute bars open-ended salary ranges for the employers it covers, so an "and up" line is out there.

In a set of states the range is not a choice.

The posting rules below are stated as we read them on each source; other states and some cities have posting rules this page has not researched, so check your own before you publish.

Size decides how many of these reach you: Census Bureau counts for 2023 put roughly nine in ten general automotive repair shops below the 15-, 25- and 30-employee lines — well under the headcount triggers, but not under New York's four.

One carve-out to know: New York lets a job paid solely on commission state that pay is commission-based instead of posting a range, and a flat-rate technician post is not that — it still needs a good-faith range.

Benchmark the number before you write it.

BLS put the median annual wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics at $50,620 in May 2025.

The lowest 10 percent earned less than $34,660, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $81,790.

Employer type moves the median too: $59,920 at automobile dealers, $49,630 at automotive mechanical and electrical repair shops, $45,700 at parts, accessories and tire retailers, and $35,730 in other automotive repair and maintenance, the row that includes oil-change and lube shops.

Those are national figures, not your market — set the range from your local competition, the scope you wrote above and the plan you named.

Close the block with benefits.

Washington, Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland each tie benefits or other-compensation information to the posting rule, and candidates read the benefits line as part of the offer: health coverage, paid time off, a retirement plan, uniforms and tool support, paid certifications.

Write it as a list, not a sentence.

Rules change.

Thresholds and effective dates get amended; confirm the current posting rule with your state labor agency before you publish the ad.

Mistakes that shrink your applicant pool

No pay line.

An ad with no pay information asks a candidate to apply blind, and in the states listed above a covered employer's range is not optional anyway.

If the plan is flat rate, post the range that plan produces — not a blank where the number should be.

No tool policy.

Shop-supplies versus technician-supplies is a line candidates otherwise ask about one at a time.

Leave it out of the ad and it becomes an interview question instead.

A hidden schedule.

BLS notes that evening or weekend work may be required in this trade; if your shop runs a Saturday rotation or a late close-out, put it in the posting so the schedule is settled before the interview, not discovered in it.

Requirement inflation.

Listing credentials the bay work does not need.

ASE certification is voluntary, so a required-ASE line is your policy choice — make it deliberately, and be ready to say why in the interview.

Age-coded language.

The EEOC's own example is a help-wanted ad seeking "recent college graduates," which may discourage people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.

Phrases like "young," "recent grad" and "energetic young team" raise the same concern in technician ads; describe the work, not the person you imagine doing it.

Body measurements instead of tasks.

Height and weight requirements tend to disproportionately exclude protected groups, the EEOC notes, unless you can show they are related to the job; write the tasks the bay demands instead.

Screening questions in the ad.

Employers generally cannot ask disability-related questions or require medical exams until after a conditional job offer; before an offer you may ask whether the applicant can perform the job's duties and how.

Keep the ad and the interview on the work.

After you post: track which lines candidates ask about — pay plan, tools, schedule — and treat every question as a line to sharpen.

When your pay plan changes, update the posting so the ad and the offer you actually make never drift apart.

Employer information, not legal, tax, insurance or safety advice. Posting and disclosure rules are state law and they change; confirm them with your state labor agency, and licence questions with your state motor-vehicle agency, before you hire.