That Hold Up.
Careers at DEC Metals
A family-run plate shop that has been cutting, forming and machining in Lakeland since 1980 — where the person who runs the machine is the person who signs off on the part.
since day one
machine and ship
learn and cross into
right now
A shop small enough to know you. Big enough to keep you busy.
DEC Metals is a metal processing company in Lakeland, Florida. We take raw plate and sheet and turn it into finished components — high-definition plasma cutting and beveling, heavy press brake forming and shearing, CNC machining and structural sawing, then deburring, cleaning and kitting before it ships.
All of it happens in one building, on one work order. That matters to customers because nothing gets lost between vendors. It matters to the people who work here for a different reason: you can walk twenty feet and see what happens to the part after you're done with it, and twenty feet the other way to see where it came from.
We've been owned and run by the same family since 1980. There is no corporate parent, no regional VP, and no layer between you and the people making decisions. If something on the floor needs to change, the person who can change it is in the building.
Some people spend a whole career here.
Here's the honest reason, and it isn't foosball tables. It's the four things below — unusual in this industry, and hard to give up once you've had them.
You see the finished part
Job shops that only cut, or only form, ship a box and never learn what happened next. Here the part moves down the same floor. You watch it become the thing it was drawn to be.
You can learn the next machine
Four service lines under one roof means four places to go. People who start on one machine and want to run another get trained on it. That's how most of our senior operators got there.
Decisions get made here
Family-owned since 1980. Ownership is on the floor, not on a quarterly call. When a process is wrong, you tell someone who can actually fix it — and it gets fixed that week.
The work is steady
Forty-plus years of repeat customers across structural, infrastructure, energy and OEM work. Diversified enough that one slow sector doesn't empty the schedule.
Two roles open right now.
Both are full-time, on-site in Lakeland, and start as soon as we find the right person. Read the full description, then apply from that page.
Material Handler /
Inventory Control
Own the safe movement, organization and day-to-day control of raw material — heavy plate handling, rigging, receiving, staging and stock control, so production always has the right plate ready.
- Lakeland, FL · On-site
- Full Time · Hourly
- Operations · Material Control
CNC Machinist /
HAAS Operator
Set up, program and run our HAAS equipment — ST20, VF8, VF3YT, SL40 and more. Model the part, generate the toolpath, hold tolerance from the first piece to the last.
- Lakeland, FL · On-site
- Full Time
- Machining · HAAS · CAD/CAM
Four steps. No black hole.
01 · You apply
Fill in the form on the role page. It takes a few minutes and goes straight to the people doing the hiring — not to a job board.
02 · We call you
A short phone conversation about what you've run, what you want to run next, and what you need to make a move worth it.
03 · You walk the floor
Come see the building and the machines before you decide anything. You'll meet the people you'd be working next to.
04 · We make an offer
If it's a fit both ways, we move quickly. And once we've spoken, you get an answer either way — nobody who walks the floor is left wondering.
Come see the floor before you decide.
Apply from either role page, or call the shop and ask for hiring. We'd rather have a five-minute conversation than a perfect resume.