Auto Body Technician Job Description: Template, Duties, Certification & Pay (2026)
A free auto body technician job description template you can copy, plus the federal certification rule that applies to anyone who sprays in your shop and that almost no collision advert mentions. The occupation pays a median of $54,890, turns over about 12,600 openings a year, and carries long-term on-the-job training as its typical entry route — the longest of any of the vehicle trades. The most common mistake in these adverts is writing one description that covers three genuinely different jobs.
What an auto body technician does
An auto body technician restores damaged vehicles to their pre-accident condition: straightening structure, replacing panels, filling and sanding, and refinishing. The formal occupation is automotive body and related repairers, SOC 49-3021, and O*NET's reported job titles show how many names the trade goes by — auto body technician, collision repair technician, body technician, refinish technician, frame man.
The task list runs to twenty-five statements, which is unusually long, and that length is the point: this is several skill sets in one occupational code. The structural work is there — “chain or clamp frames and sections to alignment machines that use hydraulic pressure to align damaged components” and “remove damaged sections of vehicles using metal-cutting guns, air grinders and wrenches, and install replacement parts using wrenches or welding equipment.”
So is the metal finishing: “position dolly blocks against surfaces of dented areas and beat opposite surfaces to remove dents, using hammers,” “file, grind, sand, and smooth filled or repaired surfaces, using power tools and hand tools,” and “fill small dents that cannot be worked out with plastic or solder.”
And so is the refinish work: “prime and paint repaired surfaces, using paint sprayguns and motorized sanders” and “sand body areas to be painted and cover bumpers, windows, and trim with masking tape or paper to protect them from the paint.”
Two tasks are worth putting in the advert because candidates use them to judge the shop. “Review damage reports, prepare or review repair cost estimates, and plan work to be performed” tells a technician whether they will be blueprinting jobs or just executing someone else's plan. “Follow supervisors' instructions as to which parts to restore or replace and how much time the job should take” tells them how the shop is run. Both are honest facts about the job; leaving them out does not make them less true.
Auto body technician job description template
Copy this, replace the square brackets, and delete the lines that do not apply. If the role includes spraying, read the certification section below before you write the requirements list.
Job title
Auto Body Technician — [Structural / Non-structural / Refinish] — [City, State]
Summary
[Company] is hiring an auto body technician for our [N]-bay collision centre in [City]. You will [strip, repair, replace and align / refinish] damaged vehicles to [OEM / I-CAR] repair procedures, working from written estimates on [insurance DRP / retail / fleet] work. Pay is [$X–$Y an hour, or flat rate at $X a book hour with a guarantee of $Y]. We run [average N hours a week per technician] and supply [all shop tools, welders, measuring system, paint and materials].
Responsibilities
- Review the damage report and estimate, plan the repair, and flag supplements before starting
- Remove and replace damaged panels, structural sections and mechanical components as the repair plan requires
- Straighten and align structure on the [frame machine / bench], measuring to specification
- Weld, rivet and bond to the manufacturer's published repair procedure for the vehicle
- Metal-finish, fill, block and sand repaired surfaces to a paint-ready standard
- Prepare and mask panels for refinishing, and [spray primers, base and clear — refinish roles only]
- Reassemble, refit trim and glass, and verify fit, function and finish before the vehicle leaves your stall
- Keep your stall, tools and the shop's equipment clean and serviceable
- Follow the shop's environmental, respiratory protection and hazardous waste procedures
- Complete the training required to keep your certifications current
Requirements
- High school diploma or equivalent, or equivalent practical experience
- [N] years in collision repair, or completion of a collision repair programme or apprenticeship
- Ability to read and follow OEM repair procedures and written estimates
- Own hand tools [list what you expect the technician to bring and what you supply]
- Valid driver's licence and an insurable record for moving vehicles on site
- For refinish roles: current spray-applied coating training and certification, or willingness to complete it before spraying — we pay for it
- Ability to pass a post-offer physical and, where applicable, a respirator fit test
Nice to have
- I-CAR Platinum, ASE B-series, or OEM certifications for [manufacturers you are certified for]
- Aluminium structural repair experience and training
- ADAS calibration experience or willingness to train
- Experience with [specific frame machine, measuring system, or estimating platform]
Schedule and conditions
[Shift pattern; Saturdays?]. Work is indoors in a heated shop, standing, kneeling and working overhead through the day, with exposure to noise, dust, solvents and isocyanates managed by the shop's controls and PPE. [Air conditioned? Downdraft booth? Aluminium clean room?]
Pay and benefits
[Flat rate or hourly — state which, the rate, and the guarantee.] [Typical weekly hours produced by technicians in this shop.] [Health, retirement, paid time off, uniforms, tool allowance or tool purchase programme.] Training and certification paid by the company.
How to apply
[One-step application. Ask what the candidate repairs today, whether they are certified to spray, and what tools they own. Do not ask for a résumé upload.]
The certification rule that applies if the job includes spraying
Collision adverts routinely list I-CAR and ASE, which are voluntary industry credentials, and omit the one that is a federal legal requirement. If the role involves spraying coatings in your shop, that is backwards.
Motor vehicle and mobile equipment surface coating at area sources is regulated under the national emission standard at 40 CFR Part 63, subpart HHHHHH — the rule the industry calls 6H. Under 40 CFR 63.11173, “all new and existing personnel, including contract personnel, who spray apply surface coatings” must be trained, and the training must cover “spray gun equipment selection, set up, and operation, including measuring coating viscosity,” “spray technique for different types of coatings to improve transfer efficiency and minimize coating usage,” “routine spray booth and filter maintenance, including filter selection and installation,” and environmental compliance with the subpart.
The consequence is stated plainly: “the spray application of surface coatings is prohibited by persons who are not certified as having completed the training.” And it expires — “training and certification will be valid for a period not to exceed five years after the date the training is completed, and all personnel must receive refresher training…and be re-certified every five years.”
Three things follow for hiring. First, if the job sprays, your requirements section should name this, not just I-CAR. Second, it applies to contract and temporary personnel too, so a painter you bring in for a busy fortnight is your compliance problem as much as your own staff. Third, because it is renewable and you almost certainly pay for it, it is a benefit you can advertise: “we pay for your 6H certification and refresher” is concrete in a way that “ongoing training opportunities” is not.
The same rule sets equipment expectations that candidates read as signals about the shop: spray booths achieving at least 98 percent capture of paint overspray, and spray application using HVLP, electrostatic, airless or equivalent technology. A shop that describes its booth in the advert is telling a painter something they actually want to know.
“Auto body technician” is three jobs
The single biggest improvement most shops can make to this advert is to stop writing one of them.
Structural technician. Frame and unibody, measuring, sectioning, welding to OEM procedure, increasingly aluminium and mixed materials. This is the highest-skill and hardest-to-fill version, and the one where OEM certification and training genuinely matter. Advertise it as its own role and pay it as its own role.
Non-structural technician. Bolt-on panels, plastic repair, metal finishing, filling and blocking. A far larger candidate pool, and the natural progression route from prep.
Refinish technician. Prep, masking, colour matching, spraying, buffing. Different skill, different personality, different certification requirement as above. Some of the best painters have no interest in body work at all, and an advert that bundles the two loses them.
There is a fourth role most shops staff and rarely advertise properly: the detailer or prep technician. It is the entry point into the trade, it needs no experience, and given that the occupation's typical entry route is long-term on-the-job training, it is where your next body technician most plausibly comes from. Advertising a prep position honestly — entry level, we will train you, here is the path — is one of the few reliable ways to grow the pool rather than fight over it.
What you may and may not ask for
Tool ownership is a legitimate requirement and should be stated precisely. “Own tools required” is a vague and slightly alarming line to a candidate; a list of what you expect them to bring and what the shop supplies is a fair exchange of information. If you run a tool purchase or allowance programme, that belongs in the advert.
Physical demands are real here — standing, kneeling, overhead work, lifting — so state them in the description and test them after a conditional offer through an examination applied to everyone in the job category. Do not ask about disability, medical history or previous injuries before an offer; the Americans with Disabilities Act does not permit it. Respirator use is a common feature of these roles, and medical clearance and fit testing sit after the offer for the same reason.
Several states and cities restrict salary history questions and require a pay range in the posting. In a flat-rate trade the range alone can be misleading, so publish the structure: the book rate, the guarantee if there is one, and the hours technicians in your shop actually produce in a typical week. Candidates in this trade have been burned by flat-rate promises often enough that a specific answer is a competitive advantage.
What we can tell you about advertising this role
Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark covers what it costs to get a completed application, by role family and market, from campaigns we run and measure. We do not have a reliable interview-to-hire figure specific to collision technicians and are not going to invent one.
What holds consistently is that the pay structure line does more work than anything else in a vehicle trade advert, and that in flat-rate shops the honest version outperforms the optimistic version — because the audience can tell the difference and has been lied to before. The second consistent finding is that a résumé upload requirement suppresses completed applications sharply among technicians, who apply from a phone and have not updated a CV in years.
The third pattern is specific to this trade: the advert that says who the shop repairs for — which insurers, which manufacturers you are certified for, whether the work is DRP or retail — gets better applicants, because an experienced technician can infer the volume, the pace and the parts quality from that one line better than from any description of culture.
Once the description is written, the next two decisions are where to advertise it and how to reach vehicle technicians who are not looking. Our guides to the auto technician shortage and to hiring skilled trades fast cover both.
Writing the ad version
Cut it to about 150 words. Lead with the role — structural, non-structural or refinish, not “body tech.” Second line, the pay structure in plain words. Third, the shop: bay count, booth, what you are certified for, who you repair for. Fourth, one line about the tools and training you supply. Then a short application that asks what they repair today.
Leave out “fast-paced, team-oriented environment.” Every shop is fast-paced. Say how many hours your technicians actually turn.
What this template will not fix
A description cannot fix a flat-rate structure that does not produce a living wage in a slow month, and technicians in this trade will work that out in the first conversation. Nor will it fix a shop that cannot keep a technician supplied with work.
It also will not create structural technicians, who take years to develop and are genuinely scarce. The occupation's typical entry route is long-term on-the-job training, which is the statistical way of saying that this trade is built, not hired. If your plan for the next five years is entirely recruitment and contains no apprenticeship, the job description is not the constraint.
Frequently asked questions
What does an auto body technician do?
An auto body technician repairs damaged vehicles: removing and replacing panels and structural sections, straightening frames on alignment machines, welding replacement parts, metal-finishing and filling dents, sanding to a paint-ready standard, and in many shops priming and painting the repaired surfaces. O*NET's task list for automotive body and related repairers also includes reviewing damage reports and repair estimates, planning the work, refitting trim and glass, and test-driving vehicles to check alignment and handling before they leave the shop.
How much does an auto body technician make?
The median annual wage for automotive body and related repairers was $54,890 in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of the trade is paid flat rate rather than hourly, so actual earnings depend heavily on the volume of work the shop supplies and the book hours a technician turns in a week. About 8.5% of the occupation is self-employed.
Do auto body technicians need certification?
Industry credentials such as I-CAR and ASE are voluntary, but there is a federal requirement for anyone who sprays. Under the national emission standard for motor vehicle and mobile equipment surface coating at area sources, 40 CFR 63.11173, all new and existing personnel including contract personnel who spray apply surface coatings must complete training covering spray gun selection, set-up and operation, spray technique and transfer efficiency, routine spray booth and filter maintenance, and environmental compliance. Spray application is prohibited by persons who are not certified as having completed the training.
How often does spray certification have to be renewed?
Under 40 CFR 63.11173, the training and certification are valid for a period not to exceed five years from the date the training is completed, and all personnel must receive refresher training and be re-certified every five years. Because the requirement extends to contract and temporary personnel as well as permanent staff, shops that bring in painters for busy periods need to account for it too. Employers who pay for the certification and refresher should say so in the job advert.
Should I advertise for a body technician or a painter?
Separately, in almost every case. Structural repair, non-structural repair and refinishing are different skills with different candidate pools, and only the refinish role carries the federal spray certification requirement. Many experienced painters have no interest in body work and many body technicians have no interest in spraying, so a combined advert tends to attract fewer good applicants for either role rather than more for both.
How do I hire auto body technicians when there are none available?
The occupation's typical entry route is long-term on-the-job training, which means most technicians are developed rather than recruited ready-made. The practical answer for most shops is to advertise entry-level prep and detail positions honestly, with a stated path into body or refinish work, alongside experienced roles. That grows the pool instead of competing for the same small number of experienced technicians, and it matches how the trade has always staffed itself.
What should an auto body technician job description include?
Name the specific role rather than writing "body tech", state the pay structure in plain words including the flat rate, any guarantee, and the hours technicians actually turn, and describe the shop: bay count, booth, the manufacturers you are certified for and whether the work is insurance direct-repair or retail. List precisely which tools the technician brings and which the shop supplies, state the physical demands, and name any certification you pay for.
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Wage, employment, projection, self-employment, education and training figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program, National Employment Matrix, occupational projections and worker characteristics, 2025–35, SOC 49-3021, read at source 9 September 2026 (table). Task statements and reported job titles: O*NET OnLine 49-3021.00, read at source 9 September 2026. Spray-applied coating training, certification, renewal, spray booth capture and spray gun technology requirements: 40 CFR 63.11173, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Paint Stripping and Miscellaneous Surface Coating Operations at Area Sources, read at source 9 September 2026 via the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Pre-offer medical enquiries: Americans with Disabilities Act, referenced generally. Nothing here is legal advice, and state and local requirements sit on top of the federal ones.