How to hire a senior maintenance engineer

How to hire a senior maintenance engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior maintenance engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior maintenance engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior maintenance engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your senior maintenance engineer job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a senior maintenance engineer for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

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   A senior maintenance engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior maintenance engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of senior maintenance engineers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Senior Maintenance Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Maintenance Engineer	Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, and test mechanical and thermal sensors and devices, including tools, engines, and machines.	$29-60
   Engineer	Engineers are highly trained professionals who determine the feasibility of various projects, usually related to the construction industry. They are considered experts in mathematics and science, two disciplines that they need to use in designing and coming up with plans for projects... Show more	$31-62
   Chief Engineer	A chief engineer is responsible for monitoring the engineering department's overall operations, ensuring performance efficiency, and everyone's strict compliance with the safety standards and regulatory procedures. Chief engineers manage the distribution of the tasks to the team, communicate with the clients and management for instructions and specifications, monitor expenses and forecast sales reports, analyze and approve designs, negotiate contracts, and process disputes... Show more	$31-85

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • Troubleshoot
   • System Troubleshooting
   • SR
   • Equipment Maintenance
   • Maintenance Procedures
   • HVAC
   • Technical Support
   • Continuous Improvement
   • Plumbing
   • CMMS
   • Cranes
   • Capital Projects
   • PLC

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Support DOD agency needs in accomplishing engineer technical and non-technical goals associate with wireless LAN technology products.
   • Serve on both safety and OSHA compliance committees.
   • Develop project dashboards, tracking systems and metric reporting through MAXIMO CMMS.
   • Core team member and CMMS technical project leader for mill-wide ERP systems project.
   • Decide on the type and arrangement of circuits, transformers, circuit- breakers.
   • Have been certify with RS-Logix's, Panelbuilder, and various Allen-Bradley drives.

   More senior maintenance engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior maintenance engineer job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior maintenance engineer salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior maintenance engineer in Wisconsin may be lower than in California, and an entry-level senior maintenance engineer usually earns less than a senior-level senior maintenance engineer. Additionally, a senior maintenance engineer with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior maintenance engineer salary

   $87,840yearly

   $42.23 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior maintenance engineer salary

   $61,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 21, 2026

   Average senior maintenance engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$118,048	$57
   2	Georgia	$101,772	$49
   3	Arizona	$98,627	$47
   4	Oregon	$96,624	$46
   5	Ohio	$94,777	$46
   6	Nevada	$94,566	$45
   7	Louisiana	$92,133	$44
   8	Michigan	$89,718	$43
   9	Oklahoma	$85,622	$41
   10	New York	$85,261	$41
   11	Colorado	$84,759	$41
   12	Texas	$83,830	$40
   13	Illinois	$83,530	$40
   14	Indiana	$79,805	$38
   15	Florida	$79,093	$38
   16	South Carolina	$78,053	$38

   Average senior maintenance engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Occidental Petroleum	$126,324	$60.73
   2	Cargill	$116,119	$55.83	44
   3	Repsol Energy North America Corporation	$114,201	$54.90
   4	The Dow Chemical Company	$105,857	$50.89	1
   5	NewMarket	$104,472	$50.23
   6	BASF	$102,896	$49.47	5
   7	RingCentral	$102,203	$49.14
   8	Tesla	$100,461	$48.30	18
   9	Yoh	$97,697	$46.97	5
   10	ATI Physical Therapy	$95,128	$45.73	6
   11	Boeing	$94,120	$45.25	188
   12	Niagara Bottling	$89,415	$42.99	37
   13	AMTEC Precision Products	$89,296	$42.93
   14	ASRC Federal	$88,178	$42.39	31
   15	Honeywell	$87,721	$42.17	43
   16	Ball	$87,177	$41.91	1
   17	Lockheed Martin	$86,999	$41.83	333
   18	Janus International Holding LLC	$86,958	$41.81
   19	Zimmer Biomet	$86,892	$41.77	4
   20	*n/a*	$86,876	$41.77	8

4. Writing a senior maintenance engineer job description

   A senior maintenance engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior maintenance engineer job description:

   Senior maintenance engineer job description example

   ASRC Federal NetCentric Technology is a premier provider of systems engineering, software engineering, system integration and product support services for Army C5ISR mission-critical systems.
   
   We are seeking a Senior Maintenance Engineer to manage development of all Integrated Product Support deliverables to include PPL, EDFP, IETM, TSP, IMI, IK TB, and MAC.
   Roles/Responsibilities:
   
   * Leads or participates in key logistics activities to include technical manual, provisioning, maintenance engineering verification and Log Demo events.
   * Furnishes expertise in conducting requirements and feasibility analysis, cost versus performance trade-off analysis, regulatory compliance support, technical data reviews, reliability and maintainability analysis, operation and maintenance analysis, technology transfer/insertion analysis, training analysis, assessing adequacy of supplier partnerships, and supply network solutions.
   * Furnishes expertise in integrating, collaborating, and synchronizing the development of Technical Data Packages, drawings, technical manuals, maintenance engineering efforts, provisioning parts lists, repair parts, special and unique tools and test equipment.
   
   Leads or participates in key logistics activities to include technical manual, provisioning, maintenance engineering verification and Log Demo events.
   
   Requirements:
   
   * Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, or related scientific /technical discipline.
   * A minimum of three (3) years of related experience.
   * Experience in design interface to include integration of the quantitative design characteristics of systems engineering (reliability, maintainability, etc.) with the functional logistics/integrated product support elements.
   * Furnishes Sustaining Engineering to include those technical tasks (engineering and logistics investigations and analyses) to ensure continued operation and maintenance of a system with managed risk.
   * Author and develop logistics acquisition and maintenance documentation to include Level of Repair Analysis, Selected Essential-Item Stock for Availability Method (SESAME), Core Logistics Assessment, Core Depot Assessment, Level of Repair Analysis, and Business Cases Analysis/Analysis of Product Support Alternatives.
   * Current Secret Clearance.
   
   Additional Requirements:
   
   * Six (6) additional years of direct relevant technical experience or relevant military service may be substituted for education or four (4) additional years of direct relevant technical experience or relevant military service with an associate degree.
   * Knowledge in one or more of the following products: MMC, JBC-P, FBCB2, MFoCS, LFED, PFED, CENTAUR, AFATDS, JDOCS, CPI2, Cyber SU, TDI, TSI, TCI or CPCE a plus.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior maintenance engineer for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior maintenance engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior maintenance engineers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior maintenance engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit senior maintenance engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit senior maintenance engineers, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior maintenance engineer

   Once you have selected a candidate for the senior maintenance engineer position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior maintenance engineer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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