How to hire a warehouse technician

How to hire a warehouse technician, step by step

Here's a step-by-step warehouse technician hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a warehouse technician job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new warehouse technician
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a warehouse technician do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the warehouse technician you need to hire. Certain warehouse technician roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A warehouse technician's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, warehouse technicians from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of warehouse technicians.

   Type of Warehouse Technician	Description	Hourly rate
   Warehouse Technician	Material recording clerks track product information in order to keep businesses and supply chains on schedule. They ensure proper scheduling, recordkeeping, and inventory control.	$13-20
   Material Handler/Warehouse	A warehouse material handler is responsible for assisting warehouse operations, moving merchandise from one place to another, labeling products, performing quality check procedures, packaging goods, and loading and unloading items from distribution vehicles. Warehouse material handlers operate warehouse tools and equipment for production, as well as ensuring the adequacy of stock inventory needed for orders and deliveries... Show more	$12-18
   General Warehouse Worker	A general warehouse worker takes responsibility for doing various duties in warehousing. General warehouse workers receive and process incoming materials and stock, pick and file orders, and pack and ship these orders... Show more	$12-18

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Pallets
   • Customer Orders
   • Warehouse Environment
   • Shipping Receiving
   • Logistics
   • Inventory Control
   • Data Entry
   • Patients
   • OSHA
   • Cycle Counts
   • Ladders
   • Safety Regulations
   • Safety Procedures

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage all FEDEX shipments and advise solutions to shipment issues.
   • Prep boxes for shipping (ex.
   • Employ wide variety of hand and power tools including hoists and drills.
   • Employ wide variety of basic hand and power tools including hoists, drills, precision measuring instruments and electronic testing devices.
   • Consolidate and stage domestic freight onto pallets for major airlines to ship internationally.
   • Improve order processing and inventory logistics by adding labels to bin locations for easier identification and determination of equipment on hand.

   More warehouse technician duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your warehouse technician job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A warehouse technician salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, warehouse technicians' average salary in south carolina is 28% less than in district of columbia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level warehouse technicians earn 33% less than senior-level warehouse technicians.
   • Certifications. A warehouse technician with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a warehouse technician's salary.

   Average warehouse technician salary

   $16.82hourly

   $34,985 yearly

   ---

   Entry-level warehouse technician salary

   $28,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 31, 2026

   Average warehouse technician salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$39,082	$19
   2	Michigan	$38,526	$19
   3	Massachusetts	$38,009	$18
   4	Ohio	$37,343	$18
   5	California	$37,341	$18
   6	New York	$37,131	$18
   7	Nevada	$37,090	$18
   8	Minnesota	$36,966	$18
   9	Colorado	$36,902	$18
   10	Pennsylvania	$36,749	$18
   11	Maryland	$36,413	$18
   12	Utah	$35,530	$17
   13	Arizona	$35,196	$17
   14	Nebraska	$34,980	$17
   15	Illinois	$34,853	$17
   16	Texas	$34,421	$17
   17	Tennessee	$34,322	$17
   18	Iowa	$34,096	$16
   19	Missouri	$33,951	$16
   20	Georgia	$33,642	$16

   Average warehouse technician salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Freeport-McMoRan	$41,445	$19.93	17
   2	United Natural Foods	$41,169	$19.79	16
   3	General Dynamics Mission Systems	$41,153	$19.79	3
   4	Owens Corning	$39,977	$19.22	7
   5	Jacobs Engineering Group	$39,792	$19.13
   6	Thermo Fisher Scientific	$39,577	$19.03	33
   7	PepsiCo	$39,534	$19.01	55
   8	SC Johnson	$39,472	$18.98	2
   9	Barrick Gold	$39,384	$18.93	4
   10	Clean Harbors	$39,164	$18.83	164
   11	Daimler Trucks North America	$38,756	$18.63	2
   12	Volvo Trucks	$38,611	$18.56	16
   13	CLEAResult	$38,537	$18.53
   14	P&G	$38,489	$18.50	4
   15	AbbVie	$38,462	$18.49	5
   16	DuPont	$38,427	$18.47	2
   17	University of Colorado Boulder	$38,399	$18.46
   18	Univ Of Colorado-Colorado Spgs	$38,360	$18.44
   19	FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies	$38,329	$18.43	7
   20	Syngenta	$38,314	$18.42

4. Writing a warehouse technician job description

   A good warehouse technician job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a warehouse technician job description:

   Warehouse technician job description example

   The Opportunity:
   
   The essential duties and responsibilities for the Warehouse Technician position include all responsibilities designated for all warehouse positions, plus the following:
   
   Clamp Truck Operations:
   Requires employee to drive a clamp truck to pull product, locate product, and load product onto trailers.
   
   Labeling and Auditing Product
   Requires employee to label incoming and outgoing product by matching names and numbers on labels to specific cartons. Also requires employee to verify product locations and update RTL system.
   
   Loading and Unloading Trailers
   Requires employee to be able to lift at least 50 pounds of boxed product waist high in order to load and unload tractor-trailers.
   
   Promotional Assembly
   Requires employee to perform price ticketing utilizing label guns, testing and repacking product using a variety of hand tools (e.g. screwdrivers, box cutters, tape guns, glue guns, etc.). Repacking various weights and sizes of product. Must be able to operate the box taping machines.
   
   Warehouse Cleanup and Maintenance
   Requires employee to perform general warehouse and light maintenance duties associated with a warehouse environment (e.g. spray painting, sweeping, stacking of cartons, etc.). Tasks and job assignments vary depending on specific job requirements.
   
   Check- Verify Shipping & Receiving Product
   Requires employee to verify product being shipped via common carriers. Employee must have good math skills and pay close attention to detail. Employee must verify that the product ordered by the customer, is the product pulled from the warehouse. A person in this position is the final step in the warehouse quality control process and must ensure that product being shipped is first quality and is the correct quantity. This position requires employee to complete load and control sheets, bills of lading, and to obtain the necessary signatures from the appropriate parties (e.g. truck drivers).
   
   Flexibility and teamwork in all aspects of job responsibilities are essential to performing job requirements. Employees in this classification may be required to perform work that is not listed in this job description as an “essential duty”. This is typically an interim solution to staff deficiencies, or during cross-training activities.
   
   

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find warehouse technicians for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any warehouse technicians they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level warehouse technicians with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your warehouse technician job on Zippia to find and recruit warehouse technician candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting warehouse technicians requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new warehouse technician

   Once you've found the warehouse technician candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new warehouse technician. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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