GE Careers Blog.

Southwest Airlines announced a multi-billion-dollar order for aircraft engines that is expected to keep the GE Aviation plant in Greenville County busy for years to come. The massive deal provides additional job security for about 200 workers at the jet engine components plant and underscores the promise that advanced manufacturing holds for South Carolinians who possess the necessary skills.

Jenna Dolan may seem like a typical GE Aviation manager but the pictures in her office point to a bigger story. Dolan is a former fighter jet pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, where she spent a dozen year and was the first woman to fly AV-8B Harrier in combat. That was in Iraq, where Dolan, or “Dookie” to her fellow Devil Dogs, served two six-month tours. Dolan, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1996, is one of 10,000 U.S. military veterans employed by GE. This high number is no accident.

GE Aviation, promising to employ 300 to 400 people ultimately, broke ground Monday on a 300,000-square-foot plant in nearby Auburn, Ala. “We’ll probably hire 50 (or fewer) in 2012 and we’ll just gradually increase each year from there. Our goal is when we get toward the end of the decade to be around 300 or 400 people,” said GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy.

GE works by moving the world on lighter, quieter, more fuel-efficient engines. In Peebles, Ohio, we’re testing aircraft engines that produce fewer emissions and make less noise.

The GE plants — with 343 workers at Parker Street, 100 at Adams Street — have two shifts and fabricate sheet metal and make engine liners and afterburner liners for commercial and military aircraft. GE expects the increased order volume to continue into next year, and it may need to add a third shift. The starting salary is more than $19 an hour. But GE Aviation’s been trying to fill some of its vacant jobs for more than three months.