North Dakota · Bakken
I&E Technician Jobs In North Dakota
Instrumentation and electrical. You keep the automation running on well sites and central facilities, and when something quits at two in the morning it is your phone that rings. Good money, real skill, and a seat the big operators hire directly...which is exactly why none of them will tell you what it pays.
Nobody Prints A Wage For This One
And the numbers you will see elsewhere are generated
We read the North Dakota I&E and field service technician postings we could find. Not one of them contains a wage. The major operators and midstream companies that hire for this seat do not publish pay.
Job sites fill that silence with their own estimate. One of them showed an annual range in the thirties for a Bakken I&E technician at a major operator, which is not a number anybody working this basin would recognise. It was generated by a model, not typed by an employer.
So this page has no pay figure. When a Bakken employer prints one, it goes here with their name next to it. Everything below comes from the actual job descriptions, which are unusually detailed even when the pay is not there.
Why The Best Paying Seats Hide Their Pay
Worth understanding, because it is a pattern across this whole basin and it costs people money.
The small local outfits out here print real wages. Hot oil, hydrovac, winch, mechanic...those postings say $28 to $35 an hour right on the ad, because a small company competing for a driver has to.
The majors and the midstream companies do not. They post six thousand words about values, benefits and career growth, and no number anywhere. They do not have to compete on the ad, because the name does the work.
That means the roles most likely to pay well are the ones you can research the least. Do not read the silence as bad news, and do not read a job site's estimate as information. Ask in the interview and get a number before you go further.
What The Job Actually Is
You are the reason the automation works. From the descriptions:
- Installing, inspecting, maintaining, troubleshooting, repairing and calibrating instrumentation, electrical and controls equipment
- Preventative maintenance on I&E equipment at well sites and central facilities
- Making sure automation is executing the programs it is supposed to, per cause and effect
- Loop and logic checks when new equipment and facilities get commissioned
- Troubleshooting variable frequency drives across a list of named manufacturers
- Finding root cause, not just clearing the fault, and telling the team what you found
- Work orders and notifications in the maintenance system, and keeping the documentation straight
- Prints, project reports and technical records
You work with operations, engineering, specialists and leads, and you spend a high percentage of your time working alone.
The Conditions Nobody Mentions Until The Interview
These are written into the posting and they are worth reading before you apply:
- Climbing to 50 feet on ladders and stairs to work on equipment
- 50 pounds lifted and carried, on even and uneven ground
- Outside in harsh weather, and this is North Dakota
- Alone, most of the time. One posting states that outright as a requirement
- On call, responding to emergencies, plus unscheduled overtime
- Confined spaces, heights, noise and energized electrical equipment
- A rotational schedule. One operator runs 8 and 6, Wednesday to Wednesday
- Residency requirement. One requires living within 50 miles of Dunn Center, Watford City or New Town
That last one catches people. A residency radius means you are moving before you start, not commuting in from Bismarck.
What They Ask For
- Technical knowledge and training to maintain instrument and electrical equipment. A degree is not the gate.
- Valid driver's licence. No CDL required.
- Low, medium and high voltage circuits...a year or more preferred.
- National Electric Code knowledge at an intermediate level.
- Electronic test instruments, and being able to apply and read a voltmeter, ammeter, ohmmeter and oscilloscope.
- Process controls and SCADA in an oil and gas setting.
- VFD troubleshooting across multiple manufacturers.
- Electrical plot plans and area classifications.
- Office software. Excel, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint. The documentation side is real.
Note what is not on that list. No CDL, no degree requirement, no oilfield background stated as mandatory. If you have industrial electrical or instrumentation experience from another industry, this is one of the more transferable seats in the patch.
Who Hires For It
Two different worlds, and they run differently.
- Operators hire I&E techs directly onto their asset teams. Rotational schedules, residency requirements, structured benefits, and the pay is not on the ad.
- Midstream and compression companies hire field service technicians doing similar work across customer sites. More driving, more variety, same silence on pay.
Both are long career seats. Automation and instrumentation work does not disappear when the rig count drops, because the wells still have to run.
Know What This Pays?
If you work I&E in the Bakken, or you hire for it, we would rather print a real number than leave this blank. Tell us what the seat actually pays and it goes up.
Tell Us What It Pays →
Where This Page Comes From
Duties, requirements and working conditions come from reading North Dakota I&E and field service technician postings in full.
The pay section is empty on purpose. No employer posting we read printed a wage for this role. We are not going to fill that gap with a job site's estimate or a national average, because a number that describes nowhere is worse than no number.
Every wage figure elsewhere on this site comes from a North Dakota posting with the company and town printed next to it. When one exists for I&E, it will appear here the same way.
Common Questions
What does an I&E technician make in North Dakota?
No employer posting we read printed a wage for this role in the Bakken. Job sites display estimated ranges for these listings, but those are generated by a model rather than typed by the employer, and at least one of them is far below what the seat plausibly pays.
What does an I&E technician do?
Installs, calibrates, troubleshoots and repairs instrumentation, electrical and controls equipment on well sites and central facilities, verifies automation is executing correctly, performs loop and logic checks on new equipment, and troubleshoots variable frequency drives.
Do you need a CDL to be an I&E technician?
No. A valid driver's licence is the requirement. The gate is technical...voltage work, National Electric Code, test instruments, process controls and SCADA.
Can you move into I&E from another industry?
It is one of the more transferable seats in the oilfield. The postings ask for electrical and instrumentation skill rather than oilfield background, and no degree is stated as required.
What is the schedule like for an I&E technician?
Rotational at the operator level...one Bakken operator runs 8 days on and 6 off, Wednesday to Wednesday, with on call duty and unscheduled overtime. That operator also requires you to live within 50 miles of Dunn Center, Watford City or New Town.