Maintenance Engineer: Job Profile and Role

Troubleshooter, maintenance whizz, handy to have in an emergency: do you find yourself in these assessments and competencies? If so, you may want to consider a job in maintenance engineering. To be more precise, the job of a maintenance engineer. 

In this blog, we will give you all the information you need to come to an informed decision. You will find out how you become a maintenance engineer in regards to qualifications and skills, where you can apply for a job, what your average working day looks like, and how you thrive in maintenance engineering. Also, there are some more interesting facts hidden among this vital info that will help you decide whether the job of a maintenance engineer is your perfect fit.

Short Summary

• As a maintenance engineer, you create maintenance procedures that enable you to tackle and solve maintenance engineering disruptions and problems.
• As a maintenance engineer, you are responsible for so-called preventative maintenance, thus ensuring that disruptions and worse cannot happen in the first place.
• As a maintenance engineer, you will have to respond to emergencies, which means you must be both reliable and safety-conscious.

Job description

Among your primary jobs in maintenance engineering is the creation of maintenance procedures that prevent breakdowns and disruptions. Nevertheless, even the best-laid preventative maintenance plans cannot rule out the odd breakdown which is why you are also responsible for emergency response and troubleshooting. Other jobs that await you include diagnostic testing, fixing machinery and equipment, and adhering to health and safety. Since you are not expected to tackle each job on your own, you need to be a people person who understands the concepts of collaboration and teamwork. 

Responsibilities

• Creating Maintenance Procedures
• Record Maintenance Activities
• Health/Safety Compliance
• Preventive Maintenance
• Equipment Maintenance
• Emergency Response
• Team Collaboration
• Supplier Relations
• Diagnostic Testing
• Fixing Machinery

Different types of Maintenance Engineers

• Mechanical Maintenance Engineer
• Automotive Maintenance Engineer
• Instrumentation/Control Engineer
• Facilities Maintenance Engineer
• Reliability Engineer

Salary

When working full-time in maintenance engineering in the UK, you can expect an annual starting salary of around ￡31,000. With experience and an excellent work record, this can increase to ￡41,000. You may also want to consider specialisation in your career since this can mean a considerable increase in your annual wages. For instance, if you work in aircraft maintenance engineering, you can earn up to ￡52,000 per year. Further salary-affecting factors tend to be your employer, the company size, and your employment location.

How your Position can affect your Salary

Work experience is an important salary-influencing factor and can increase your annual wages considerably. Besides, full-time and part-time can decide about your annual wages. But did you know that even your educational approach has an effect? If you become a maintenance engineer through an apprenticeship, you will already earn your first wages. As an apprentice maintenance engineer, you can expect annual salaries starting at ￡15,000.

Working hours

You can expect weekly working hours between 37 and 40 hours. While some of these hours will be spent in an office, most of them will take place on-site since you function as a hands-on troubleshooter. You should furthermore factor in potential travelling, always depending on your employment contract. Note that evening and weekend work as well as emergency response can affect and increase your weekly hours.  

Employers

Energy and utility, facility management companies, construction and engineering firms, and even transportation and logistics can all be potential employers where you can apply for a job. This also depends on your interests and values as well as your possible specialisation. These factors should always come into the “job application” equation to ensure that you enjoy your job 100 per cent. If employment does not work for you in the long term, you have the option of going self-employed. We recommend that you take this step after you have worked as a full-time maintenance engineer for several years.

Qualifications

Depending on whether you approach your career through a university course, an apprenticeship, or a college course, you first need pass grades in your GCSEs. For all three educational options, these tend to be four to five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or two or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D) for a college course. Alternatively, you can enter your education with outstanding A-Levels which should be related to maintenance engineering, for example, in physics, maths, or engineering. 

Besides, you will use software which is why you should gain experience with some of the following: computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) like SAP Plant Maintenance and IBM Maximo, and asset management software like eMaint CMMS.

Skills

A keen eye for detail, outstanding safety awareness and knowledge of natural sciences are skills that will benefit you in your job as a maintenance engineer. Nevertheless, you need always check “your” job posts for the exact competencies needed to become a maintenance engineer since they typically vary slightly from employer to employer. With that said, we will now take a look at three skills you should have when you want to become a maintenance engineer.

Attention to Preventive Maintenance

You will function as a troubleshooter when working in maintenance engineering. Equally, you are responsible for preventing breakdowns, disruptions, and worse. Therefore, you need strong attention to preventive maintenance skills if you want to perform brilliantly – and ensure safety and smooth workflows at ideally all times.

Technical Understanding

Being a maintenance engineer is based on an interest in and a knowledge of natural science, such as physics. Equipped with this, you already have a solid foundation that should then be boosted by technical understanding. This includes technical and electrical systems as well as the ability to understand and interpret technical drawings and blueprints, to name but a few.

Collaboration 

Hardly any job is a “one man” or “one woman” show – why should the job of a maintenance engineer be any different? Here, you work with a team of other maintenance engineers whom you need to liaise and collaborate with to find and implement solutions quickly and efficiently. Strong collaboration competencies are therefore needed – together with a good sense of teamwork and what it entails.

Career Path

Degree first, work experience second. This is at least true if your career in maintenance engineering starts with an undergraduate degree. If you kick-start your career with an apprenticeship, you already have some experience. Regardless of your approach, you will still start with an entry-level position, such as the job of an assistant maintenance engineer. 

With experience, you can advance to more senior positions or think about specialising, for example, as an aircraft or automotive maintenance engineer. Alternatively, you can think about going into teaching which is possible at both a college and a university.

Educational Background

If you want to have a starting advantage over other applicants, you may want to consider doing an undergraduate degree like Maintenance Engineering BSc. An academic background can more or less easily be extended to a postgraduate degree with an MSc in maintenance engineering being one option. 

However, you are not required to attend university to pursue your dream career in maintenance engineering since you can also complete a college course, such as a T Level in Maintenance, Installation and Repair for Engineering and Manufacturing. You can also decide to do an advanced/higher apprenticeship. The latter has its own benefits, among which are work experience and a salary.

Entry Level

You will typically work in your entry-level position as an assistant maintenance engineer for about a year, maybe slightly longer or even less. Here, you learn the ropes of your job and ideally have a mentor – aka, a more senior colleague – who takes you under his or her wing. Keep in mind that you need to give this entry-level job all you have since this is one of the most important factors for advancing your career.

Continuous Learning

You may be happy as the “average Joe” or “average Jane” when working in maintenance engineering or you are ambitious and want to climb to the top. Whatever your ambitions, you should always find time for further training and improvement. In maintenance engineering, this can consist of these interesting options: qualifications and certifications awarded by City & Guilds, for example, in Engineering Maintenance, or courses offered by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Here, you can look into technical engineering courses as well as courses focusing on business skills (always interesting if you are thinking about self-employment).

A Day in the Life of a Maintenance Engineer

Every working day should start with a nice cup of tea or coffee and a nourishing breakfast, all of which set you up for the tasks ahead. But what exactly will you be doing as a maintenance engineer? Without further beating about the bush, here are three of your typical daily tasks.

Equipment Inspection

One of your first and paramount tasks is to inspect all equipment, either in your company or at a different maintenance site. You need to ensure that everything is in working order, starting with the machinery and various systems, and finishing with all other equipment. You further must notice and report any flaws and necessary repairs which then fall under your responsibility.

Scheduled Maintenance

Even though you cannot rule out each and every possible breakdown, you can nevertheless implement scheduled maintenance which is another of your daily tasks. Here, you work according to a maintenance plan which you may have developed. This scheduled maintenance can include calibration and replacing parts that show some wear and tear.

Emergency Response

As we have said, you cannot prevent every breakdown and disruption. Therefore, emergency response can be another task, albeit hopefully not a daily one. Emergency response means dealing with breakdowns swiftly and efficiently by finding and implementing solutions as fast as possible.

Tips for Thriving as a Maintenance Engineer

Your further training – be it accredited qualifications or a postgraduate degree – is one way to thrive in maintenance engineering. More ways help you improve and – if you so want – climb to the top of the career ladder. Let’s look at three tips for thriving as a maintenance engineer:

• Specialisation 
• Computer literacy
• Health and Safety

Specialisation 

We have already mentioned two possible specialisations in maintenance engineering, aircraft and automotive maintenance engineering. Branching out to these or other specialisations is a brilliant move if you want to thrive and advance. They tend to give you a valuable “edge” on the job market, especially, when you train in a niche sector where a high level of expertise is needed. Aircraft maintenance engineering can also mean a career with the Royal Forces. And before you say “No way!”, consider the fact that these jobs come with nice paychecks and high job security.

Computer Literacy

As a maintenance engineer, you use the software daily – be it CMMS software or apps, workflow management tools, IoT platforms, or computer-aided design software (CAD). This is why computer literacy should always be top of your list when it comes to continuous learning and improving these skills. They help you thrive – even before you have technically started your first job.

Health and Safety

Maintenance engineering requires a high level of health and safety, and all health and safety regulations and procedures must be adhered to at all times. As a maintenance engineer in the UK, you need to be aware of and proficient with the following health and safety regulations: the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998. We further recommend that you stay updated on possible new regulations and changes to the mentioned existing ones.

Frequently Asked Questions