What Jobs Are There in Shipbuilding, Marine Fit-Out, Refit and Repair?

Search for shipbuilding jobs and you'll find plenty of lists of trades, but the trade a vessel needs depends on the stage it has reached. A bare steel hull needs platers and welders. Once the structure is in place it needs pipefitters, mechanical fitters and electricians, then joiners, finishers and painters as it becomes somewhere people can live or work, and when it comes back for a refit, most of those trades return to work around whatever has changed on board. This guide covers the shore-based side of marine jobs, the yards, dry docks and workshops where vessels are built, fitted out, repaired and refitted, with a short profile for each role.

What Is the Difference Between Construction, Outfitting, Fit-Out, Refit and Repair?

Yards don't all use these terms the same way, so here's how we're using them.

• Construction (newbuild): building a vessel from the structure up, meaning hull, decks and superstructure.
• Outfitting: installing the equipment and systems that turn the structure into a working vessel. OSHA's description of outfitting covers propulsion, plumbing, electrical systems, insulation and deck equipment, installed before the hull units are joined or after.
• Fit-out: in UK ferry, cruise and specialist marine work, usually the interior: joinery, furniture, linings and final finishes. Some employers use it interchangeably with outfitting, and our ship fit-out and outfitting jobs page covers the wider picture.
• Maintenance: routine upkeep such as servicing, inspection, coating upkeep and scheduled overhauls.
• Repair: restoring something damaged, worn or failed, from renewing wasted steel plate to rebuilding a damaged GRP moulding.
• Refit: a planned package of work to renew, alter or upgrade an existing vessel, including maintenance. Refits tend to grow once surfaces are opened up and hidden damage or weld distortion appears, which feeds into why shipyard refits often struggle to secure skilled engineers.
• Dry docking: taking the vessel out of the water so the underwater hull can be reached. It's often part of a repair or refit rather than a job in itself.

Job titles are less tidy than the stages. A GRP finisher may call themselves a gelcoat repairer or composite finisher, a carpenter may be a marine joiner or cabinetmaker, and a marine engineer may also be called a marine mechanic or propulsion technician. Employers who advertise only the formal title may miss people who'd suit the work, and candidates searching one title may miss vacancies posted under another.

Shipbuilding Jobs: Hull and Structural Trades

Plater and Fabricator

Platers and fabricators cut, form, align and assemble hull plating, decks, bulkheads, frames and superstructure sections from drawings, and go back in during repairs and refits to renew damaged steel. Their work is what welders, pipefitters and machinery teams build on, so accuracy matters early. Skills England's metal fabricator standard sits across engineering construction and maritime settings. Typical background: a fabrication apprenticeship or Level 3 engineering route, with confident drawing reading. See our plater and fabricator jobs.

Marine Welder (Coded Welder)

Welders make the permanent joints in what the platers have prepared, on hulls, structure and pipework. "Coded" means the welder has passed a formal test specific to a process, material and position, so someone coded for MIG on steel isn't automatically approved for TIG on aluminium. The trade is changing too, with NMIS and Innovate UK describing welding as evolving into hybrid technology-plus-trade roles. Work in enclosed spaces adds its own controls, and HSE names confined spaces, flammable gases, work at height and falling objects among the main hazards in shipbuilding. Typical background: a time-served welding trade plus current coding. See coded welder jobs.

Boatbuilder and Shipwright

The National Careers Service describes boatbuilders as building, repairing and refitting craft from small boats to large vessels, working across fibreglass hulls and decks, wooden fittings, welding and resin joining, and installing new systems. Boat building jobs can lead on to marine engineering, boat design, surveying or yard management. "Shipwright" is used for this job and for older shipyard hull trades, so check what an employer means. Typical background: the Level 3 boatbuilder apprenticeship, which typically takes 48 months, or a move across from joinery, electrical, welding or plumbing. See our marine and maritime jobs.

Marine Engineering Jobs: Machinery and Pipework

Marine Mechanical Fitter

Skills England defines the marine mechanical fitter as someone who manufactures, installs, tests, fault-diagnoses, maintains, overhauls and removes mechanical and fluid-power equipment on ships and submarines. In practice that means pumps, valves, rotating machinery and hydraulics, from newbuild through to maintenance, in compact machinery spaces where alignment and access both need care. Typical background: a Level 3 apprenticeship or a time-served mechanical fitting career. See mechanical fitter jobs.

Marine Pipefitter

Pipefitters fabricate, install and test the systems that carry fuel, fresh water, cooling, drainage, hydraulic fluid and compressed air around a vessel. The maritime pipeworker standard covers fabrication, installation and repair on ships and submarines, and the apprenticeship runs to around 42 months. Vessel pipework is generally less forgiving than building-services work because of dense routing, penetrations through structural and fire boundaries and vibration. A pipefitter isn't automatically a pipe welder: the fitter forms and assembles the system, and the pipe welder makes the specified welded joints. See pipefitter jobs.

Marine Engineer and Marine Mechanic

In a yard, marine engineer usually means working with naval architects, installing engines and safety systems, servicing vessels, carrying out surveys and updating technical documents, as the National Careers Service describes it. Some supervise technicians, and the title overlaps with propulsion technician and marine mechanic, covering engines, gearboxes, generators, steering and cooling. Typical background: a foundation degree or degree, a Level 3 apprenticeship, or a start as a technician. See marine engineer jobs.

Marine Electrician Jobs: Wiring and Electrical Systems

Marine Electrician

We're recruiting for this role now in Poole. Electrical work runs through every stage of a vessel's life, and Skills England's Marine Electrician standard covers design and installation of assemblies, upgrades, diagnostics, maintenance, repair, commissioning and testing, on vessels from small craft and workboats to much larger ships. Larger defence and commercial yards more often use the Level 3 Maritime Electrical Fitter standard, and on bigger projects navigation, communications and automation electronics may be split off as a separate technician role, so it pays to search more than one title.

Our Poole role involves making and fitting wiring looms, planning trunking, installing equipment and fixtures, wiring AC and DC appliances and fault finding. We're asking for at least three years' installation experience, with 18th Edition and a marine background advantageous, and we'll consider manufacturing, automotive and industrial electricians. The main change from land-based work is the rulebook: boat wiring has to cope with vibration, movement, heat and water, and the IET points out in Wiring Matters that BS 7671 alone doesn't cover it. Its examples include keeping wiring 250 mm clear of dry exhausts and using at least IP55 protection for weather-exposed connections.

Marine Finishing Jobs: GRP, Fairing and Paint

GRP Repair Finisher

We're recruiting for this role now in Poole. GRP, glass-reinforced plastic, is what most people call fibreglass, and a finisher trims, sands, fills, polishes and rectifies a cured component or gelcoat until it meets the dimensional and cosmetic standard. The title covers two jobs: production finishing during a build, and damage repair afterwards, where colour matching and blending a repair into the surface matter most.

Our Poole vacancy is the first kind, covering trimming, sanding through the grades, polishing, cutting to specification, inspecting for defects and supporting quality control on marine GRP components. We're asking for at least two years' finishing experience. Boat and marine manufacturing backgrounds help, and so does automotive bodywork, since the finishing skills overlap heavily. The substrate is different, though, and knowing how far you can sand before you damage the laminate underneath is a skill in itself.

GRP Laminator and Composite Technician

Laminators build or structurally repair the laminate using reinforcement and resin, and the finisher takes over once it's cured. The Level 3 composites technician route covers polyester and epoxy resins, mould preparation, lay-up, curing, inspection and repair. Typical background: composites or boatbuilding training.

Marine Painter, Blaster and Fairing Technician

Blasters prepare surfaces and painters apply the protective and finishing coats, with fairing in between to correct ripples, weld distortion and repair transitions before topcoat. That work is coordinated between paint inspectors, repair teams and project managers. On commercial vessels coatings are also a compliance matter, with the IMO's ballast tank coating standard setting a 15-year target life, and spraying brings its own health controls, including HSE's isocyanate paint guidance. Typical background: preparation, spray and coatings experience. See industrial painter and blaster jobs.

Marine Fit-Out Jobs: Joinery and Interiors

Marine Fit-Out Carpenter

We're recruiting for this role now in Poole. Yards use carpenter, joiner and cabinetmaker for overlapping jobs, and our role is the fitting side: final fitting of bespoke vessel interiors and scribing components to irregular shapes, meaning marking and cutting a piece so it sits tight against a curved or uneven surface. The materials include timber, ply, vinyl, leather and soft furnishings, with lacquered and solid-surface finishes. Carpenters can progress into supervision or project management.

Shopfitters, joiners and kitchen fitters are welcome to apply. The precision fitting and visible-surface finishing are familiar territory, and the curves and angles are the part that's new.

Marine Bench Joiner

Bench joiners work in the workshop, building cabin doors, sole bearers and furniture from CAD drawings, ready for the fit-out carpenters to install aboard. Broadly, one builds the piece and the other fits it. Typical background: joinery or cabinetmaking with drawing interpretation.

Marine Inspection, Design and Yard Support Roles

NDT Technician

NDT technicians test welds without damaging them. The methods used on new-build ships include magnetic particle, dye penetrant, radiography and ultrasonic testing, and TWI notes that ultrasonic isn't applied to plate below 8 mm, so radiography is used there. Class society surveyors oversee the inspection procedures and approve the methods.

Marine Surveyor

A marine surveyor inspects and examines boats and equipment and reports on their condition, and British Marine lists the role as degree-level. It's a different job from a class surveyor, who works for a classification society, so check which one a vacancy means.

Naval Architect

Naval architects work on the design, construction, conversion, repair and surveying of ships, boats and offshore structures. Typical background: an engineering degree followed by at least two years of responsible work before registration.

Marine Project Engineer and Planner

Project engineers and planners turn the design into a programme, coordinating trades, documentation and progress. See our marine design and project engineer jobs.

Slinger and Signaller

Slingers select lifting accessories, attach and detach loads and direct the crane, and usually hold a CPCS A40 or NPORS card, according to the lifting operations guide from the FPS. Little gets moved around a yard without them.

Chargehand and Supervisor

Supervisors lead a trade team, allocate jobs and keep progress, quality and safety on track. Most come up through the trade they now lead.

Are Marine Jobs in Demand in the UK and Europe?

There's no official vacancy count for individual marine trades, so treat any claim about a specific percentage shortage of, say, marine electricians with caution. The wider evidence still helps. Skills England's 2026 advanced manufacturing assessment estimates 148,000 workers will be needed in priority occupations between 2025 and 2035, counting growth and replacement, and names welding trades, electrical and mechanical engineers, engineering technicians, quality-assurance technicians and metal-working maintenance fitters among them. That isn't a marine-specific figure, but they're the same trades yards recruit, and 71% of the identified occupations are already in critical or elevated demand. The defence assessment adds around 82,000 workers of projected demand across 14 defence priority occupations.

The government's response to the shipbuilding skills taskforce recognises marine electricians, marine surface finishers, boatbuilders and marine engineers among the occupations that matter, identifies manufacturing clusters on the Clyde and the Forth, and says future order books are increasing competition for labour in Scotland. On the leisure side, British Marine reports £4.41bn of turnover and 38,336 full-time equivalent jobs across the wider leisure and small commercial marine industry in 2022 to 2023. One date worth watching for repair and survey work is 13 December 2026, when existing vessels covered by the MCA Workboat Code Edition 3 need to comply or face their next renewal examination, although how much extra work that creates will vary by fleet.

Europe shows the same pressure. The EU Blue Economy Report puts direct employment in EU shipbuilding and repair at about 316,000 in 2022, Reuters reported in May 2025 that European defence manufacturers were struggling to recruit welders and technicians, and a Romanian shipyard advertised for 227 staff in 2023, including welders, mechanics and foremen, with on-the-job qualification. Rhino has an office in Constanța, so we follow this side of the market closely, and it's relevant to any employer weighing up international recruitment.

How Do You Get Into Marine Jobs?

British Marine lists apprenticeships for boatbuilders, composites technicians, marine electricians, marine engineers and surface finishers at Level 3, with marine surveyor at Level 6. Direct entry is common too. All three of our current marine vacancies welcome applicants from adjacent trades, including automotive, shopfitting, kitchen fitting and industrial electrical work, so if you're wondering whether your existing skills would count, they may well do.