Plumber jobs in Bellevue and the Eastside.

It depends on the role. Journeyman, service, and master plumber positions require a current Washington State plumbing license (PL01 or PL02) — verified through the Department of Labor & Industries before the job starts. Apprentice roles do not require a license; the contractor will enroll you in the WA L&I-registered apprenticeship program on hire. The dispatch coordinator role is non-technical and has no licensing requirement.

Apprentices accumulate 8,000 supervised work hours over roughly four years while attending classroom instruction (one evening per week). After completing apprenticeship and passing the state exam, you become a journeyman plumber (PL02 license). Journeymen can perform plumbing work independently. After several years as a journeyman plus additional supervisory experience, you can sit for the master plumber exam (PL01 license), which lets you serve as the responsible plumber on permitted commercial and complex residential work and supervise apprentices. Each step is a real wage bump.

Four years on the standard track — 8,000 supervised on-the-job hours plus 576 hours of classroom instruction (roughly one evening a week through Washington's approved trade schools). Some candidates with prior plumbing field experience can challenge for accelerated tracks, but the supervised-hours minimum is set by Washington State Labor & Industries and isn't waivable. You're paid throughout — the wage scale starts at around 50% of journeyman scale and bumps every 1,000 hours toward 100% as you progress.

Yes, but plan for the license transfer process. Washington State recognizes some out-of-state plumber licenses for reciprocity (varies by your origin state) but typically requires either documentation of equivalent training/experience or sitting for the WA journeyman exam. We can connect you with the hiring contractor before you start the transfer — many contractors are happy to extend an offer contingent on WA licensure, which gives you a paid path through the paperwork. Apply with your current license info and a note about your transfer plan.

Yes — the apprentice plumber role on this page enrolls you in a Washington State L&I-registered apprenticeship through the hiring contractor. The program runs roughly four years, mixes full-time field work with one evening per week of classroom instruction, and ends with the WA journeyman plumber exam. Tuition and books for required coursework are paid by the contractor. This is the standard, fully-sanctioned path to a WA plumbing license — not a shortcut, not a private bootcamp.

Wide range depending on license level and experience. Apprentices start around $22–30/hr and bump every 1,000 supervised hours through the program. Service plumbers run $32–42/hr. Journeymen run $38–55/hr. Master-licensed crew leads run $55–75/hr. After-hours emergency dispatch pays time-and-a-half (1.5x) on weeknights, 2x on weekends, and higher multipliers on holidays. Total annual comp for a full-time journeyman doing rotating on-call typically lands $90K–130K depending on overtime mix and certifications.

The plumbing roles listed here are W-2 employee positions with the hiring contractor — health insurance, paid time off, 401k, the standard package. The contracting company is the employer; you're not classified as a 1099 contractor unless explicitly noted on a specific posting. Avoid plumbing jobs that try to classify you as 1099 — Washington State's worker-classification rules are strict and misclassification puts both you and the contractor at risk.

Health insurance (medical, dental, vision), paid time off (typically 10 days year one plus state-mandated sick leave), 401k with employer match (3–4% match is common), tool reimbursement (annual cap, varies by contractor), and continuing-education stipends for specialty certifications like backflow prevention, medical gas, or hydronic systems. Specific benefit packages vary by contractor — the hiring contractor will share their exact benefits at the offer stage, not before. If a benefit matters to you, ask about it during the interview.

Most full-time plumber roles in our network include a company service van fitted out for residential plumbing work — and the larger specialty equipment (jetters, sewer cameras, drain machines) is contractor-provided too. You bring your own hand tools and basic power tools; most contractors offer a tool reimbursement program (annual cap, typically $500–1,500) to help you build out and replace gear. The apprentice role provides initial hand tools and you build your own kit through the reimbursement program as you go.

The contractor. Bellevue Plumber Pro is the dispatch network operator — we run the phone line, the website, and the editorial content. The independently licensed Washington State plumbing contractor that posted this role is your direct employer, your benefits provider, and the license under which you'll work. We coordinate the introduction and forward your application; the contractor handles interviews, offers, onboarding, and your paycheck.

Three steps, typically across 1–2 weeks. (1) Phone screen with the contractor's hiring lead — 20–30 minutes covering experience, license status, and schedule fit. (2) In-person interview at the contractor's shop — meet the team, walk through a real job ticket, talk through diagnostic scenarios. (3) Half-day ride-along with a current crew member on actual calls before a final offer. The ride-along works both ways — you see the work and the culture, the crew sees how you handle yourself with customers. We forward your application within 24 hours of submission; the contractor typically reaches out for the phone screen within 3–5 business days.

Email a resume and a short note to careers@bellevueplumberpro.com. We keep resumes on file for 12 months and forward to contractors in the network when matching roles open up. Include your license status (apprentice, journeyman, master, or none), years of field experience, the kinds of jobs you've been running, and any specialty certifications. Don't call the dispatch phone number listed elsewhere on this site — that line is for plumbing service clients only, and a hiring call there gets routed back to the form anyway.

Most plumber roles in our network carry a rotating on-call schedule — typically one week in four, sometimes one week in three for smaller crews. During your on-call week you respond to overnight, weekend, and holiday emergency dispatches. Time-and-a-half premium pay applies on every on-call hour, with higher multipliers on weekends and holidays. The dispatch coordinator role has a similar one-week-in-four overnight rotation but you take calls from home rather than running to job sites.

Highly variable, but a typical day: morning dispatch huddle and parts pickup at the shop in Downtown Bellevue (~7:30am), then 4–6 service calls across whatever cluster of neighborhoods you're routed through that day. Mix is usually water heaters, leak repairs, drain clearing, and fixture swaps. Driving between calls is real — Eastside traffic adds up. Many days end back at the shop by 5pm; on-call weeks add unpredictability. The cedar-root sewer pattern in older neighborhoods (Bridle Trails, parts of Somerset) means hydro-jetting work shows up in steady rotation if you have the equipment certification.

Available across all field roles, mostly not required outside of your on-call week. Most contractors offer voluntary overtime on Saturdays (40-hour-week limit for the apprentice program, but full-time journeymen+ are uncapped). On-call weeks are not technically 'overtime' — they're paid at the after-hours premium rate (1.5x weeknights, 2x weekends) for any hour you actually respond to a call. Whether overtime is required depends on the specific contractor's workload — during cold snaps and major weather events, almost everyone runs extra hours by mutual agreement.