Hire a CNC operator in Greater Montreal
A CNC operator runs a machine someone else programmed, so your posting has to say how far the job’s autonomy goes, from loading parts to setup. This page gives you a job description to copy, the requirements that hold under NOC 94106, the assets worth naming and eight questions that show whether someone measures and reacts, or only presses cycle start.
Job description to copy
Replace what is in brackets, then post it as is.
CNC operator
Location: [city], Greater Montreal · Schedule: [day / evening / night], [number] h per week
Pay: [to be set] (benchmark: median $25.26/h in Quebec, $25.36/h in Montreal (Job Bank))
Responsibilities
- Read job orders, drawings and machining routings before each batch.
- Load and clamp parts, then start cycles on CNC lathes or machining centres.
- Watch the cut and stop the machine on a broken tool, a badly clamped part or low coolant.
- Measure parts with micrometers, calipers and gauges at the frequency set by the inspection plan.
- Enter the speed, feed and toolpath codes the procedure provides for at the control.
- Deburr and finish parts, and set aside those that are out of tolerance.
- Complete the production and inspection sheet every shift.
- Do routine machine maintenance and apply lockout before any work in the danger zone.
- Report any drifting dimension or program that needs correcting to the setup person or the machinist.
Requirements
- Secondary school diploma, required under NOC 94106.
- Reading drawings and machining routings, and using precision measuring instruments.
- SIMDUT 2015 training — the Quebec version of WHMIS — on the shop’s products, which the CNESST requires for every exposed worker.
- Following the lockout procedures set out in section 196 of Quebec’s occupational health and safety regulation.
- Confirmed availability for the shift posted, including evenings or nights where that applies.
- Able to work standing, with repetitive motion, manual handling and noise, the conditions Job Bank describes.
Assets
- AEP Opérations sur machines-outils à commande numérique (program 4214), the CNC operation attestation.
- DEP Usinage (program 5371), offered in English as Machining.
- Quebec qualification certificate for CNC machine tool machinists, régleur-opérateur (setup-operator) level.
- Experience on the same type of machine as yours: lathe or machining centre.
- Experience with the control already installed on your floor.
- Experience in a shop that works from a written inspection plan and a production sheet every shift.
What we offer
[benefits, insurance, shift premiums, training]
CNC operator pay benchmark
| Region | Median | Offered in postings |
|---|---|---|
| All of Quebec | $25.26/h | — |
| Montérégie | Quebec figures | $24 (38) |
| Montréal | $25.36/h | $25.80 (13) |
| Laval | $25.16/h | — |
| Lanaudière | Quebec figures | $24.47 (16) |
| Laurentides | Quebec figures | $22.25 (12) |
Median published by Job Bank (NOC 94106) and median offered in job postings (6 months, February to August 2026); in brackets, the number of hourly postings.
Eight interview questions
- On your last machine, what did you do yourself, and what did you leave to the setup person?
- Here is a machining routing: how often do you have to measure, and which dimension do you check first?
- Three parts in a row are creeping toward the tolerance limit. What do you do before the fourth?
- You hear an abnormal noise mid-cycle. What do you do, and in what order?
- Show me how you read this micrometer, then these calipers.
- What lockout procedure did you follow before clearing chips or changing a tool?
- Have you ever entered codes at the control? Which ones, and who authorized you to do it?
- Which shifts are you available for, and have you ever worked a shift alone with no setup person on site?
Timelines and difficulties
The title covers very different jobs. NOC 94106 puts under one code the operator who loads parts on a CNC machine, the one who runs a conventional lathe and the set-up operator who prepares the machine: a résumé that says CNC operator does not tell you which. The trade is not regulated in Quebec, so no card sorts candidates for you; you have to test measurement and the reflexes in front of a drifting dimension. The training aimed at the job, the 645-hour AEP, is rarely offered in the area according to Inforoute FPT, and the DEP Usinage trains machinists first. Job Bank also notes that several experienced workers are looking for work in the occupation: the applicants exist, the work is sorting them. Say in the posting which machine, which control, which shift and how much setup the job carries.
We run this search for employers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore and the South Shore. Our recruitment service: manufacturing and production
If the placement does not hold six months, we replace it.
The replacement is on us. You do not pay twice for the same role.
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