Maintenance Engineer—From Technician to System Designer
Table of Contents
From Fixing Machines to Preventing Failures: Maintenance Engineer
Maintenance technicians fix broken equipment. Maintenance engineers prevent equipment from breaking. They earn ₹50,000-75,000/month as entry-level engineers, advancing to ₹1,00,000-1,60,000+/month in senior roles.
Key Responsibilities
Equipment Strategy (40%):
- Plan equipment maintenance strategy
- Design preventive maintenance schedules
- Implement predictive maintenance systems
- Optimize maintenance budgets
- Plan equipment replacements
System Optimization (30%):
- Analyze equipment performance data
- Identify reliability issues
- Implement improvements
- Reduce downtime
- Improve asset utilization
Capital Planning (20%):
- Evaluate new equipment
- Plan equipment upgrades
- Manage replacement budgets
- Justify capital investments
- Oversee equipment procurement
Team Leadership (10%):
- Supervise maintenance technicians
- Coordinate with operations
Communicate strategy
Technical Skills
- Equipment reliability analysis
- Predictive maintenance systems (vibration, thermography, oil analysis)
- Maintenance planning (TPM, RCM—Reliability Centered Maintenance)
- Capital equipment evaluation
- Budgeting and financial analysis
Project management
Salary Expectations
Maintenance Engineer:
₹50,000 – ₹75,000/month
Senior Maintenance Engineer / Reliability Engineer:
₹75,000 – ₹1,15,000/month
Maintenance Manager:
₹1,15,000 – ₹1,60,000+/month
Advancement Path
Maintenance Technician (5+ years) → Maintenance Engineer → Reliability Engineer → Maintenance Manager → Plant Operations Director