Tire Technician Job Description: Duties, Responsibilities, Template & Pay (2026)
A tire technician mounts, balances, repairs and rotates tires, and increasingly does the TPMS, alignment prep and basic service work around them. It is the most common entry point into the automotive trades and the one with the clearest progression, which is the recruiting argument most shops forget to make. This page has a tire technician job description template you can copy, what the work pays, and how to write the posting so it reaches people who will still be there in a year.
What a tire technician does
O*NET describes the occupation as unbolting and removing wheels from vehicles, placing wheels on balancing machines, inflating tires, gluing patches over ruptures in casings, and rotating tires to different positions.
In a working shop the day is four things.
Mount and balance. Breaking the bead, dismounting, inspecting the casing and the wheel, mounting the new tire without damaging the bead or the rim, balancing to spec, and torquing to the manufacturer's value with a torque wrench rather than an impact gun.
Repair and service. Assessing whether a puncture is repairable by position and size, patch-plug repairs from the inside, valve stems, and TPMS sensors — service kits, programming and relearn procedures, which is the part of the job that has changed most in the last decade.
Inspection. Tread depth, uneven wear patterns and what they say about alignment or inflation, age and casing condition, brake and suspension visual checks, and telling a service advisor what the customer actually needs.
Everything around it. Rotations, road-force balancing where the shop has it, alignment prep and rack work, seasonal changeovers, road hazard claims, and moving a great deal of weight all day.
Tire technician job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for a retail tire and service shop; the customization section covers dealerships, commercial truck tire work, mobile service and fleet.
Job title
Tire Technician [/ Tire and Lube Technician / Service Technician] — [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a tire technician for our [city] shop: [0] bays, [0] technicians, about [00] vehicles a day, [passenger and light truck / including commercial]. Shift is [days and hours], [00] hours a week, [with Saturdays on a rotation]. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] an hour [plus a production or flat-rate component], paid [weekly]. [No experience needed — we train and we supply every tool. We also pay for ASE certification and move technicians into alignment, brakes and general service as they progress.]
Responsibilities
- Dismount, inspect and mount passenger and light-truck tires without damaging beads or wheels
- Balance wheels to specification and correct road-force issues where equipment allows
- Torque all fasteners to the manufacturer's specification with a torque wrench
- Assess punctures for repairability and complete patch-plug repairs correctly from the inside
- Service, program and relearn TPMS sensors
- Perform rotations and measure and record tread depth and wear patterns
- Carry out visual inspections and report findings accurately to the [service advisor]
- [Assist with alignments, brake work and basic service as trained]
- Keep the bay, lift area and tire storage clean, organised and safe
Requirements
- Able to work [the schedule], including [Saturdays]
- Able to lift [50] lbs repeatedly, stand for a full shift and work in heat and cold
- Careful with customer vehicles and with torque and inflation procedures
- Valid driver's licence [to move vehicles in and out of the bay]
- Able to pass a background check and [drug screen]
Preferred
- Previous tire, lube, quick-service or automotive experience
- [TIA Automotive Tire Service certification — we will certify you]
- TPMS and road-force balancing experience
- [Commercial or medium-truck tire experience]
- [Spanish and English]
Pay and benefits
- [$00.00–$00.00] an hour [plus production pay], reviewed at [90] days and [12] months
- [We pay for TIA certification and ASE testing, on the clock]
- [All tools supplied — you do not need to buy a box to start]
- [Health, dental and vision from day [00]], [401(k) with match], [PTO]
- [Clear progression: tire and lube to general service to ASE-certified technician, with the pay steps named]
- [Uniforms and boot allowance], [climate-controlled or heated bays]
How to apply
[Apply here / text TIRE to 00000 / walk in [days, times] and ask for [name]]. We reply within [24] hours and can usually start you within the week.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
This is the automotive trade's front door. Nearly everyone in a service department started here or somewhere like it, which means the posting is competing less with other tire shops than with warehouses and retail paying a similar rate for easier work.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Experience | Rarely necessary. O*NET shows a mixed entry profile — 41% with a high school diploma, 27% with less — and shops train mounting and balancing in a couple of weeks. "No experience needed, we train and supply the tools" belongs in the first line. |
| Own tools | The single biggest barrier to entry in automotive work, and the one most easily removed at this level. A shop that supplies everything should say so loudly; a shop that expects a tool box from a first-job candidate is advertising to people who already work somewhere else. |
| Certification | TIA's tire service certification and ASE are both real and portable. Offer to pay for them — it is inexpensive, it is a genuine draw, and it improves the work. |
| Physical requirements | State them honestly: repeated lifting of 50 lbs, standing all day, heat, cold, noise. This is hard physical work and an accurate description produces fewer applications and much better retention. |
| Driver's licence | Needed to move vehicles in and out of bays. Fair, and worth saying. |
| Pay structure | Hourly, hourly-plus-production and flat rate all exist here. Say which, and if there is a production component, say what a technician actually earned last month rather than only the base. |
| Progression | Not a requirement but the strongest card this role holds. Name the path — tire and lube, general service, ASE-certified technician — with the pay at each step. Almost no tire shop posting does, and it is the only thing that distinguishes the job from a warehouse shift. |
Tire technician duties, written for a posting
Describe the shop. Bays, technicians, vehicles a day, whether the work is tires only or tires plus service, what equipment you run — touchless mounting machines and road-force balancers are worth naming — and whether the bays are heated.
Say what the technician is trusted with and what goes to a senior. Torque procedure, repair-versus-replace decisions and inspection reporting all carry real consequence, and a shop that describes them properly signals it takes the work seriously rather than treating it as tire changing.
Keep the list to eight or nine lines, ordered by how much of the day each takes, and include the housekeeping. Tire storage and bay organisation are a real part of the job.
How to customize it by shop
Retail tire and service
The standard version. Lead with the pay, the tools, the training and the progression. Saturdays are usually the busiest day — say how the rotation works rather than asking for open availability.
Dealership service
Manufacturer training, a defined career ladder and usually better benefits, against flat-rate pressure. Say the pay structure plainly and name the training path; dealerships recruit well here when they do.
Commercial and medium truck tire
A different job: heavier assemblies, cages, torque values that matter enormously, and often road service at night. Pay accordingly and say the call-out expectation. This work suits a specific person and pretending it is passenger tire work loses them.
Mobile tire service
Say what the van carries, the radius, how calls are dispatched, and whether the vehicle goes home. Roadside work has genuine hazards — say what the safety procedure is, because the candidates who do this work want to know you have one.
Fleet and municipal
Steady hours, no retail customers, predictable schedule and usually public-sector benefits. Underadvertised and attractive to technicians tired of Saturdays — lead with the schedule.
What it costs to reach tire technicians on social
Technician and mechanic roles are our largest single role family: across 145 campaigns in the 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark the median cost per applicant was $13.41, with a middle half of $7.40 to $23.58, a blended figure of $8.35 and a 16% apply rate. The wider Skilled Trades and Field Service sector — 335 campaigns — ran an $11.89 median at 18%.
What moves that number is not the bid. Across all 891 campaigns, campaigns converting under 10% of clicks paid a median $53.77 an applicant and those over 20% paid $4.41. The second lever is frequency: past three impressions in a month the median cost per applicant roughly doubles, and a shop's realistic catchment is a short drive, so a steady small budget beats a burst. For an entry-level automotive role specifically, the biggest single conversion lever is saying that tools are supplied — it removes the assumption that the job needs a thousand dollars of equipment before the first shift.
Hiring across the shop? See the lube technician, mechanic and auto detailer job descriptions, and skilled trades recruiting for the hiring side.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone by somebody who has other options at a similar rate. It needs the rate and how it is structured, that tools are supplied, that no experience is needed, and where the job leads — in the first three lines. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words, and for a role like this the shorter end works.
Three or four questions on the form, then call the same day. Every extra field costs completions, and the technician you want has applied somewhere else this morning.
What tire technicians earn
Tire repairers and changers had a median of $18.13 an hour, $37,710 a year in 2025, across about 113,400 people with roughly 15,300 openings a year and 5–6% projected growth — faster than average.
| Role | Median pay (2025) | Employed | Openings per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive service technicians and mechanics | $24.34/hr · $50,620 | 805,600 | ~70,000 |
| Tire repairers and changers | $18.13/hr · $37,710 | 113,400 | ~15,300 |
| Cleaners of vehicles and equipment | $17.23/hr · $35,830 | 410,100 | ~56,200 |
The gap in that first row is the recruiting argument. A tire technician who progresses into general service and certification is looking at roughly $6.21 an hour more — about $12,900 a year — in the same building, and the route is well-trodden: 805,600 automotive technicians nationally, most of whom started somewhere like this.
Against that, the immediate competition is warehouse and stocking work at $17.95 and $17.44, which is within a dollar and physically easier. That is the honest position, and it is why a tire shop posting that offers only an hourly rate loses. The ones that win offer the rate plus the tools, the certification and the named next step.
Frequently asked questions
What does a tire technician do?
A tire technician dismounts, inspects and mounts tires, balances wheels to specification, torques fasteners to the manufacturer's value, assesses and repairs punctures with patch-plug repairs, services and relearns TPMS sensors, performs rotations, measures tread depth and wear, and carries out visual inspections reported to the service advisor. Many also assist with alignments, brakes and basic service.
How much do tire technicians make?
Tire repairers and changers had a median of $18.13 an hour, or $37,710 a year, in 2025. For comparison, automotive service technicians and mechanics earn a median of $24.34 an hour, which is the progression most tire technicians are working towards and the number worth naming in a job posting.
What qualifications does a tire technician need?
No formal credential is required — O*NET shows 41% of entrants with a high school diploma, 27% with less and 26% with a post-secondary certificate. Employers need physical capability, care with torque and inflation procedures, and a valid driver's licence to move vehicles. TIA tire service certification and ASE are valued and usually paid for by the employer.
Do tire technicians need their own tools?
At this level, usually not, and shops that supply everything should say so prominently. Tool ownership is the largest barrier to entry in automotive work, and expecting a first-job candidate to arrive with a tool box restricts the posting to people who already work in the trade.
What should a tire technician job description include?
Bay count, technicians on staff, vehicles a day, whether the work is tires only or tires plus service, the equipment you run, the shift including how Saturdays rotate, the pay structure with realistic earnings if there is a production component, whether tools are supplied, what certification you pay for, the physical demands, and the progression path with the pay at each step.
Is tire technician a good entry-level job?
It is the most common front door into the automotive trades, with a clear route to general service and ASE certification worth roughly $6 an hour more. It is also physically demanding — repeated 50 lb lifting, standing all day, heat and cold — and pays within about a dollar of warehouse work that is easier, which is why the training path matters so much in the posting.
What is the difference between a tire technician and a mechanic?
A tire technician works on tires, wheels, TPMS and increasingly basic service. An automotive service technician diagnoses and repairs vehicle systems across the whole car, usually with ASE certification and their own tools. The first is the entry point and the second is where it leads, which is why the two should be cross-linked rather than treated as unrelated jobs.
Why is it hard to hire tire technicians?
Because the work is harder than the warehouse and retail jobs paying about the same, and most postings offer nothing beyond an hourly rate. The shops that fill reliably remove the tool barrier, pay for certification, state Saturday rotation rather than demanding open availability, and name the progression to technician with the money attached.
Other job description templates
Hiring tire technicians?
The description is the document. Winning an entry-level candidate from the warehouse down the road is the job. That is what we run.
Wage, employment, projection and task descriptions for tire repairers and changers (SOC 49-3093), automotive service technicians and mechanics (SOC 49-3023) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment (SOC 53-7061): O*NET OnLine, republishing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 OEWS wage data and BLS employment projections. Cost-per-applicant, apply-rate and frequency figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.