• planning and carrying out scheduled maintenance.
• responding to emergencies.
• diagnosing faults.
• repairing equipment and testing repairs.
• supervising contractors, and engineering and technical staff.
• ordering specialist components, fixtures or fittings.
• creating maintenance procedures.
• managing stocks of supplies and equipment.
• keeping records of faults and repairs.

You may need to work shifts or be on call, particularly where manufacturing equipment is in continual operation. You’ll also need to travel to sites.

Career progression is often rapid; maintenance engineers have opportunities to move into managerial positions or related areas of employment such as plant/production engineering. In these roles, you’re likely to have responsibility for budgets, for supervision and scheduling of other staff, and for the health and safety of team members.