Maintenance engineers ensure equipment operates effectively in various settings, including public works. They provide preventative and emergency maintenance, communicate with team members and have advanced technical skills. Vocational training and advanced degrees are available for career advancement.
Maintenance engineers ensure that equipment and machinery operate effectively and work to support the day-to-day operations of your facility. They work in a variety of settings such as hospitals, hotels, aircraft hangers, chemical companies, production plants or food companies. Some work strictly indoors, while others work primarily outdoors or in a mix of both. It is not uncommon for maintenance engineers to be exposed to loud noise, electrical circuits, moving parts or hazardous chemicals.
Opportunities exist for maintenance engineers in public works for local or state government. These positions often require an understanding of state and federal regulations. A public works maintenance engineer typically repairs bridges, roads, and transportation management systems such as traffic lights. They may also work with outside vendors and installation contractors or with emergency response systems such as fire, police or ambulance services.
Regardless of their location, maintenance engineers provide preventative and emergency maintenance. Typical tasks for a maintenance engineer might include scheduling routine services, distributing work orders to a team of technicians, calibrating instruments, performing quality control inspections, and responding to equipment failures. They must also communicate with managers or supervisors and their team members about work progress, delays in project completion, and other issues that may arise. Their professional duties require them to be responsible for their own safety as well as the safety of others.
Maintenance engineers generally have advanced technical skills and enjoy working with their hands. They are also likely to be good at math and science – especially the physical sciences and possibly chemistry – depending on location and work environment. Maintenance engineers tend to work quickly under pressure and have above-average problem-solving skills.
The maintenance engineer career path is similar in most industrialized countries. There is different terminology in the United States and the United Kingdom, but the requirements are very similar. Individuals who want to become maintenance engineers often enter a stage where they work as technicians for a more experienced, senior-level maintenance engineer.
Vocational training is offered and encouraged in most countries and can usually be completed while learning. Certificate and diploma programs are available in a variety of areas such as service and maintenance, computer applications, food technology, and air conditioning and refrigeration. Individuals looking to enter management or become a senior-level maintenance engineer may consider an advanced degree. Concentrations include chemical engineering, which generally focuses on polymer technology; Computer Science and Engineering; electronics and communications; food Technology; and manufacturing principles.
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