The purpose of this study is to develop the control technology of the welding distortion caused by Auto NG-GTA(Narrow Gap-GTA) welding process at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment. Heat input model for Auto NG-GTA welding process was established and verified by measuring temperature change and molten pool shape at the bead-on-plate weldment. With the heat input model developed, the effect of tension load on the welding distortion at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment was evaluated using the thermo-elasto-plastic FE analysis. In accordance with FEA results, the angular distortion and transverse shrinkage sharply decreased with an increase in tension load. This result indicated that tensioning method was an effective countermeasure against the welding distortion of the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment.