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Container Ship Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Hirevouch

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$152K/yr

Ship quickly with customers; measure impact and refine. * Hold a high quality bar while executing ... Hands-on with DevOps, CI/CD, and containers. * Able to take products from 0→1, concept to ...

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All JobsContainer Ship JobsContainer Ship Jobs in California

Container Ship information

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How much do container ship jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 25, 2026, the average hourly pay for container ship in California is $19.55, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $16.59 and $21.83 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a container ship?

Container ships are large cargo vessels specifically designed to transport standardized shipping containers. These ships play a crucial role in global trade, carrying goods such as electronics, clothing, and machinery across oceans. They range in size from small feeder vessels to ultra-large ships capable of carrying over 20,000 containers. Container ships are essential for efficiently moving vast quantities of goods between countries, making international commerce faster and more cost-effective.

What are different container ship jobs?

Container ship jobs focus on the operation and maintenance of cargo vessels. Your job duties and responsibilities depend on the career that you choose to pursue. An entry-level crew position is a deckhand or “ordinary seaman.” These positions focus on menial tasks related to ship operation and cargo maintenance. A steward position involves working to cook and clean in the galley. Mechanics and engine room staff maintain the ship’s equipment. Mates perform tasks like helping the captain navigate and steer the ship. A mate may also oversee various deck operations.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a container ship crew member?

Container ship crew members are responsible for a variety of tasks to ensure safe and efficient vessel operations. Daily duties often include monitoring the ship’s navigation systems, maintaining engines and equipment, overseeing the loading and unloading of cargo, and conducting regular safety checks. Crew members also participate in routine drills and collaborate closely with officers, engineers, and port staff to coordinate schedules and address any issues that arise during the voyage. Teamwork and adaptability are essential, as schedules can be demanding and the work environment is dynamic and international.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a container ship officer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Container Ship Officer, you need a solid background in maritime navigation, cargo operations, and safety regulations, usually backed by a degree in marine transportation and relevant licensure such as a STCW certificate. Proficiency with navigational systems (like ECDIS), cargo management software, and safety equipment is crucial. Leadership, problem-solving, and effective communication are vital soft skills for managing crews and responding to emergencies. These competencies ensure safe, efficient ship operations and compliance with international maritime standards.

What is the difference between Container Ship vs Cargo Ship?

AspectContainer ShipCargo Ship
Primary CargoStandardized containersVarious goods, bulk commodities
Work EnvironmentShip deck, cargo holds, port operationsShip deck, cargo holds, port operations
Required CertificationsMaritime licenses, safety trainingMaritime licenses, safety training
Industry UsageGlobal shipping, logisticsGlobal shipping, logistics

Container ships are specialized vessels designed to carry standardized containers, making loading and unloading efficient. Cargo ships encompass a broader category, including vessels that transport various types of goods, including bulk commodities. While both operate in the maritime shipping industry and require similar certifications, container ships focus on containerized cargo, whereas cargo ships handle diverse cargo types.

How do I get a job on a container ship?

To work as a container ship crew member, you typically need relevant maritime certifications such as STCW (Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping), a valid passport, and physical fitness. Entry-level positions often require completing maritime training programs and gaining experience through apprenticeships or cadet programs offered by shipping companies or maritime academies.

How much do you get paid working on a container ship?

Container ship crew members typically earn between $2,000 and $8,000 per month, depending on their position, experience, and the shipping company. Officers and engineers generally earn higher salaries, and pay may include benefits such as accommodation and food onboard. Salaries are often influenced by international maritime standards and certifications like STCW.
More about Container Ship jobs

What are the most commonly searched types of Container Ship jobs in California?

The most popular types of Container Ship jobs in California are:

What are popular job titles related to Container Ship jobs in California?

For Container Ship jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Container Ship jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Container Ship jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Container Ship jobs?

Cities in California with the most Container Ship job openings:

Container Ship jobs near you
Infographic showing various Container Ship job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 93% Full Time, and 7% Part Time. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $40,655 per year, or $19.5 per hour.

Engineering Manager, Crusoe Container Registry

ProducePay

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$215 - $260/hr

Other

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 6 days ago

Job description

About the Role

We're looking for a Software Engineer II to help make Crusoe Cloud's container registry fast, reliable, and observable at scale. The registry sits on the critical path of every deployment and job launch on our platform, and its performance directly affects how quickly customer workloads come online. You'll contribute to components of the container registry, with a focus on understanding and improving how the platform performs in production. This is a full-time position.

What You'll Be Working On

  • Build at scale: Contribute to and own components behind Crusoe Cloud's managed container registry, serving the images that training and inference workloads run on.

  • Ship end-to-end: Own features across the full lifecycle, design, implementation, testing, rollout, and operation.

  • Tackle hard problems: Take on the hard challenges of building a cloud provider, bringing clarity to ambiguous problems and landing simple, pragmatic designs.

  • Collaborating across teams: Partner with product and platform teams to align on solutions that serve customers and operations alike.

  • Build for reliability: Write and ship sustainable software with observability baked in, so the platform stays maintainable as it grows, issues surface early, and root causes are quick to find.

  • Raise the bar operationally: Spot and act on opportunities to make the team's systems easier, safer, and faster to run.

What You'll Bring to the Team

  • Distributed systems fundamentals: You have a solid grasp of how fault-tolerant distributed systems behave under high load, with experience contributing to such services in production.

  • A performance mindset: You consider performance in everything you do, bringing hands-on experience profiling and benchmarking real systems, as well as reasoning about the tradeoffs.

  • A customer-centric mindset: You keep the end-user top of mind, championing decisions that make the platform more reliable for the people who use it.

  • Technical & infrastructure proficiency: You havestrong fundamentals in microservices and cloud-native infrastructure technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform) alongside languages like Go, Rust, Java, or C++.

  • Collaboration and communication: You are comfortable working across functions to align on priorities and to explain technical tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical partners alike.

  • Mentorship: You have an interest in helping new teammates onboard onto team systems, as well as helping engineers find their footing and grow.

  • Experience: 2 - 4 years of professional software development experience, but we care more about what you’ve built than the exact number.

We know great engineers come from many different paths. If you're excited about this work but don't match every point below, we'd still love to hear from you. What you've built and how you think matters more to us than a perfect checklist.

Bonus Points

  • Familiarity with the OCI image and distribution specs

  • Experience building container registry products

  • Experience with storage or caching systems at scale

Benefits

  • Competitive compensation and equity packages

  • Restricted Stock Units

  • Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs

  • Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance

  • Employer contributions to HSA account

  • Paid parental leave

  • Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability

  • Professional development & tuition reimbursement

  • Mental health & wellness support

  • Commuter benefits (parking & transit)

  • Cell phone stipend

  • 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary

  • Volunteer time off

  • Global travel insurance & emergency assistance

  • Daily meals allowance

  • Additional perks & programs specific to location

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $215,000 -$260,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant's knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.

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