Materials Laboratory Technician — Chicago, IL

Laboratory technicians turn field samples into the numbers projects run on: Proctor curves, sieve analyses, Atterberg limits, moisture contents, and compressive strength breaks. You will work inside a documented AASHTO R18 quality system with calibrated equipment and real accountability for every result that leaves the lab. Responsibilities: Perform ASTM D698, D1557, D2216, D4318, C136, and C39 testing Maintain calibration, standardization, and quality records Log samples and preserve chain of custody Break cylinders and report strength results same day Support proficiency sample programs and accreditation assessments Qualifications: Careful hands, clean documentation habits, mechanical aptitude Prior lab or CMT experience a plus, not required — we train Comfortable with repetitive precision work done right every time What a week in this job looks like: Field samples arrive in waves: bags of borrow for Proctors, buckets of base for gradations, jars for Atterberg limits, cylinders for the break schedule. Your week is the disciplined conversion of that material into numbers projects run on. Ovens loaded and logged, sieve stacks shaken to constant result, limits rolled to an eighth-inch thread, cylinders capped square and broken on schedule with the fracture photographed. It is precision work with a rhythm to it. People who like doing things exactly right, every time, with the radio on, tend to love this room. Break days have their own cadence: cylinders pulled from the tank on their exact ages, ends checked, machine loaded at the standard rate, results in the system before lunch so a contractor somewhere can strip forms. On heavy weeks you will break dozens, and every one of them is a promise the field made that the laboratory keeps. Certifications, training, and where this leads: We train you method by method inside a laboratory that answers to AASHTO re:source and CCRL assessors, which means your training is not tribal knowledge, it is a documented competency record with your name on it. ACI laboratory certifications and NICET construction materials testing levels follow as you build scope, on the company's dime. Laboratory technicians who master the soils bench and the concrete bench become the people who train others, run proficiency programs, and step into laboratory supervision. It is also the strongest technical foundation in the industry for anyone who later wants field, engineering, or management tracks. Pay, schedule, and travel: Pay runs $25 to $35 per hour with overtime during heavy testing seasons. The laboratory runs on a steadier clock than the field, mostly daytime hours with predictable surges when big earthwork programs or break schedules stack up. This is a facility-based role at the laboratory serving your region's work, with occasional field sampling support when the schedule calls for extra hands. Safety, quality, and the standards we work under: The laboratory operates under a written quality management system built to AASHTO R18: calibrated equipment on documented schedules, technician competency records, proficiency samples, and internal audits that find problems before an assessor does. You will be trained on chemical and equipment safety for every method you touch. Accuracy here is not a slogan. A wrong Proctor curve fails good fill or passes bad fill across an entire project, and the system exists so that never happens quietly. We are an equal opportunity employer and consider every applicant without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status. #J-18808-Ljbffr Construction Material Testing