Crane Operator Staffing and Recruiters
Trusted by contractors across construction, energy and infrastructure
Certified crane operators, riggers and lift crews for contractors and plant owners
Advastar provides crane operator staffing for general contractors, specialty and industrial contractors, crane and rigging companies and plant owners. We place NCCCO certified operators on hydraulic and lattice boom cranes, along with the riggers, signalpersons and lift directors who work the pick with them.
Most of what we do here is contract work, because most crane work arrives that way. A contractor needs someone in the seat of a 65-ton rough terrain crane for three months on a hospital expansion. A plant needs two operators to keep a 130-ton crane running around the clock through a twelve-day shutdown, one on days and one on nights. A wind farm repower needs a telecrawler operator by Monday and a crew to assemble and break down a crawler. We fill those orders with operators who have recent seat time on the class of machine you are running, not just a card.
Certification is where screening starts. Since late 2018, OSHA’s construction crane standard has required that operators be certified by an accredited program and that the employer evaluate them on the equipment they will actually run. We verify the NCCCO certification and every endorsement directly, check that it is current and unexpired, confirm the DOT medical card and OSHA 10 where the site calls for them and then ask about the machine: what cranes the operator has run in the last year, at what capacities, how they set up for a pick and when they last took a crane out of service. The answers tell you far more than the certificate does.
We also handle the parts of a crane assignment that most often go wrong. Travel, mileage and per diem are agreed before anyone is submitted. Shift patterns, including 7×12 shutdown schedules and night work, are confirmed with the operator up front. And the operator is asked to commit to the full run, because a crane that sits for a day waiting on a replacement costs more than any placement fee. Advastar brings more than 60 years of combined staffing experience to this work, nationwide.
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Our crane and rigging talent network
- 2,400 NCCCO certified operators and riggers in network
- 31 states with crane placements in the last year
- 6days median time from order to operator on site
- 94% of crane assignments completed to the end of the run
Crane and rigging talent we supply
Operators for boom trucks, service truck cranes and articulating cranes on commercial, utility and industrial jobs, where the operator is often also the driver and the DOT medical card matters as much as the certification.
Crews to assemble and break down crawler and large mobile cranes, including the wind farm repower work where a crawler is built, used and taken down in a couple of weeks. Oilers and apprentice operators placed where the job calls for them.
Operators for lattice boom crawler cranes on heavy industrial new construction, energy and wind work, including luffing jib configurations. NCCCO LBC endorsement verified, and seat time on comparable capacities confirmed.
Lift directors and planners for critical and engineered lifts: lift plans, load charts, ground bearing, rigging configurations and running the pre-lift meeting. The role that keeps a heavy pick on schedule and inside the chart.
Operators for rough terrain, all terrain, truck-mounted and telescopic crawler cranes, the machines behind most of our orders. We match on the class of crane, so a job running a 60-ton Grove RT gets an operator with recent time on a 60-ton RT.
Qualified riggers to NCCCO and NCCER standards who select and inspect gear, rig the load and work the tag lines. We place them alongside an operator or as a rigging crew in their own right.
Day and night operators, riggers and signalpersons for plant outages, refinery turnarounds and planned maintenance, scheduled so the crane never sits between shifts and everyone commits to the full outage window.
Qualified signalpersons for picks where the operator’s view is obstructed, on congested sites or inside live plants, able to run hand signals and radio communication to the standard OSHA requires.
Certifications, cranes and skills we verify
- All Terrain Cranes
- Articulating Cranes
- Assembly & Teardown
- Boom Trucks
- Crane Inspections
- DOT Medical Card
- Lift Planning
- Load Charts
- NCCCO LBC
- NCCCO LBT
- NCCCO Lift Director
- NCCCO Rigger I & II
- NCCCO Signalperson
- NCCCO TLL
- NCCCO TSS
- NCCER Rigging
- OSHA 10 /
30 - Rough Terrain Cranes
- Telecrawlers
- TWIC Card
Crane staffing outcomes we have delivered
- Read Case Study: Grain Processing Plant Shutdown – Round-the-Clock Crane Coverage
Grain processing plant shutdown – round-the-clock crane coverage
- Day and night operators on a 130-ton rough terrain crane, 12-hour shifts
- Both operators committed to the full outage window before submittal
- Combustible dust and hot work protocols covered in screening
- Read Case Study: Data Center Build – Equipment and Transformer Setting
Data center build – equipment and transformer setting
- NCCCO TLL operator with recent 50 to 100 ton hydraulic crane time
- Transformer and switchgear setting experience confirmed before submittal
- Per diem, travel and a 60-hour week agreed up front
- Read Case Study: Wind Farm Repower – Crawler Crane Operator and Assembly Crew
Wind farm repower – crawler crane operator and assembly crew
- Telecrawler operator with wind farm and heavy industrial seat time
- Riggers experienced in large crawler assembly and disassembly
- 7x12 schedule, mileage and site orientation handled before arrival
What hiring managers say about Advastar
Why clients trust Advastar
Forbes 2026 America’s Best Recruiting & Temp Staffing Firms
Advastar was named to Forbes’ America’s Best Professional Recruiting Firms 2026 and America’s Best Temp Staffing Firms 2026, both compiled from independent surveys of the clients and candidates we work with.
Read the AnnouncementGE Energy Staffing Partner of the Year
GE Energy named Advastar its Staffing Partner of the Year in 2025 through the GE Vernova supplier program.
60+ years of combined crane operator expertise
Our crane operator recruiters bring more than 60 years of combined recruiting experience to every search we run.
Tell us who you need to hire
- Tell us about the role you need to fill
- A recruiter calls you within one business day
- Together we agree on a plan to fill the role
Find your next role
- Tell us what kind of work you want
- A recruiter reviews your details and gets in touch
- We put you forward for jobs that fit
GE Energy Staffing Partner of the Year
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Our crane operator recruiting team
David Case
Founder and President
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Tim Shearer
VP & National Managing Director
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Robert Cornelio
Director of Business Development
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Jaime Summers
Senior Recruiter
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Amanda Martin
Recruiter
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Christen Trent
Recruiter
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Laura Carrillo Barrios
Recruiter
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Lisa Wombwell
Office Manager
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Frequently asked questions about crane operator staffing
Certified operators for rough terrain, all terrain, truck-mounted, telescopic crawler, lattice boom crawler, boom truck and articulating cranes, plus riggers, signalpersons, lift directors, oilers and crane assembly and disassembly crews. Most placements are contract, and we also place operators on a contract-to-hire or direct basis.
Yes. Every operator we submit holds a current accredited certification, almost always NCCCO, with the endorsement for the crane you are running, such as TLL for large telescopic boom cranes or LBC for lattice boom crawlers. We verify it with the certifying body before submittal and confirm it is unexpired for the length of the assignment.
No, and OSHA agrees. Since late 2018 the construction crane standard has required employers to evaluate an operator on the equipment they will run, in addition to certification. We screen for recent seat time on the same class and capacity of crane, and we tell you what the operator has actually run so your evaluation starts from the right place.
Many of our crane orders start within a week, and short-notice requests are normal in this trade. It is fastest when the crane, capacity, site requirements and travel terms are clear at the start, so an operator can accept the job and mobilize without a second round of questions.
It depends on the crane, the region and the schedule. As a reference point, the certified crane operator assignments on our job board in September 2026 paid operators $40 to $46 an hour, with per diem of $100 to $175 a day and mileage or travel pay on out-of-town work. We give you a bill rate once we know the machine, the hours and the location.
Yes. Outages are some of our busiest crane work: day and night operators on 7×12 schedules so the crane runs around the clock, with riggers and signalpersons alongside. We confirm every operator can commit to the full outage window before they are submitted.
Yes. We place qualified riggers and signalpersons with an operator or as a separate crew, with NCCCO or NCCER rigging credentials where the site requires them. Some sites accept verifiable rigging experience in place of a certification, and we tell you which a candidate has.
Yes. Lift directors and lift planners who build lift plans, check the load chart and ground conditions, specify the rigging and run the pre-lift meeting on critical and engineered picks.
Yes. We place telecrawler and crawler operators on wind farm construction and repower projects, and rigging crews to assemble and disassemble the large crawlers those jobs use. These are usually short, intensive runs of a few weeks on long daily hours.
Per diem, mileage and mobilization terms are agreed with you and the operator before submittal, including whether travel is paid on completion. Most crane placements that fall apart do so over travel and schedule, so we settle both first.
Yes. Our equipment practice recruits for companies that manufacture, sell, rent and service heavy equipment: technicians, sales managers and branch leadership. Crane operator staffing puts certified operators and rigging crews on your job site. If you need a crane technician or a rental branch manager, that is the equipment team.
We place crane operators and riggers nationwide, on local jobs and on travel assignments, across construction, data centers, healthcare, energy, wind, manufacturing and processing plants.