Texas Instruments is seeking up to 20 manufacturing workers to accommodate a production increase at its South Portland microchip fabrication plant.

The Dallas-based integrated circuit manufacturer is hosting a job fair Saturday to screen candidates. A similar job fair was held Thursday.

In January 2016, Texas Instruments announced plans to close a manufacturing plant in Greenock, Scotland, and move some of that work to Maine.

At the time, the company said it had about 540 workers in South Portland and that it did not expect to add more as a result of the Greenock closure.

But on Thursday, one of the job fair’s organizers said “new products and technologies” prompted the effort to seek out more workers in South Portland.

“It’s due to growth,” said Paul Cote, program manager at Volt Workforce Solutions. “We have a lot of automation in there. Their job will be to keep the equipment operating efficiently.”

Volt provides technical staffing to Texas Instruments and other large companies.

Those hired through the South Portland job fair technically will become employees of Volt, but will work at Texas Instruments by virtue of an open-ended employment contract with the company.

The available jobs are entry-level positions under the title of “manufacturing specialist.”

The minimum requirement is a high school or general equivalency diploma, and no prior manufacturing experience is needed, Cote said.

The South Portland fabrication plant, or “fab,” is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. Manufacturing specialists work 11.8-hour shifts starting at either 6 a.m. or 6 p.m., and their weekly schedule alternates between three and four consecutive days a week.

The company pays an overtime rate of 1.5 times hourly pay for the last 3.8 hours of each shift, Cote said.

Workers hired through the job fair also will receive a quarterly bonus of $300 for the first year, he said.

The positions include benefits such as paid vacation days, employee-sponsored health insurance and profit-sharing bonuses, Cote said.

The overall hourly starting wage for a manufacturing specialist, when overtime hours are factored in, works out to a dollar amount in “the mid-teens to low 20s,” depending on the shift and the employee’s prior work history, Cote said.

There are also opportunities for contract workers to become full-time, permanent employees of Texas Instruments, he said.

Saturday’s job fair is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Texas Instruments’ South Portland plant, at 5 Foden Road.

Those seeking more information can email Grace Jones at GJones@volt.com.

J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:

canderson@pressherald.com