Maintenance Supervisor Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A maintenance supervisor decides what gets fixed first, who fixes it and whether it was fixed right, while keeping the crew safe and the parts on the shelf. This page has a maintenance supervisor job description template you can copy, the duties list, what the role pays, and six interview questions with what a good answer sounds like.
What a maintenance supervisor does
A maintenance supervisor runs the people who keep a plant, campus or property portfolio working. The job is part scheduler, part coach, part senior technician: deciding which work orders go first, putting the right technician on each one, checking the work, keeping parts and contractors lined up, and making sure nobody gets hurt doing it.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish an Occupational Outlook Handbook profile for this role. The closest federal occupation is first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers (SOC 49-1011), and O*NET lists maintenance supervisor, facilities maintenance supervisor, maintenance foreman, maintenance superintendent, maintenance coordinator and maintenance planner among its reported titles. The figures on this page describe that whole occupation, which also includes supervisors of auto, HVAC and field-service crews.
O*NET’s top tasks read like a maintenance supervisor’s week: inspecting and testing completed work, running safety inspections and training, interpreting blueprints and job orders, reviewing technicians’ performance, still doing skilled repairs, estimating material, labor and contractor costs, managing tool and parts inventories, and setting schedules and assignments based on priority, equipment and skill. Further down the list: investigating accidents, recommending hires and discipline, reviewing contractor bids and helping prepare the budget.
The software O*NET names is the planning stack: computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) such as IBM Maximo, ERP systems (SAP, Oracle JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics), Yardi for property maintenance, PLC and SCADA software on the plant side, AutoCAD and Microsoft Project.
| Working conditions (O*NET) | Share reporting it |
|---|---|
| Constant contact with others | 90% |
| Telephone conversations every day | 86% |
| Email every day | 82% |
| Wear protective or safety equipment every day | 61% |
| Very high responsibility for the health and safety of other workers | 59% |
| A typical week of more than 40 hours | 53% |
Two rows matter for the posting. More than half report a week longer than 40 hours, so say what the on-call and overtime arrangement really is. And the safety row is the reason a technician who is great with a wrench is not automatically a good supervisor: the job is now responsible for other people’s hands.
Maintenance supervisor duties
- Plan, prioritize and assign daily work orders and preventive maintenance across the crew and shifts
- Inspect completed work and sign off on repairs, PMs and safety-critical jobs
- Run lockout/tagout, hot work and other safety programs, and investigate incidents
- Troubleshoot the hardest problems alongside technicians, and step in on repairs when needed
- Manage parts and tool inventory, requisitions and vendor relationships
- Get bids from contractors, schedule them and check their work
- Track downtime, backlog and PM completion in the CMMS, and report to the plant or facilities manager
- Hire, train, coach and, when necessary, discipline maintenance staff
- Help build and manage the maintenance budget
Maintenance supervisor job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields and delete what does not apply. It works for a manufacturing plant as written; the customization notes below cover facilities, property management and healthcare.
Job title
Maintenance Supervisor, [Shift], [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a maintenance supervisor to lead a team of [number] [mechanics / technicians / electricians] at our [plant / campus / properties] in [city]. You set the day’s priorities, put the right person on each job, check the work and keep everyone safe, and you still pick up a meter when the problem is hard. [Shift and on-call arrangement]. [Pay range].
What you will do
• Plan and assign work orders and preventive maintenance in [CMMS name]
• Lead a crew of [number] across [shifts], and coach, evaluate and hire technicians
• Inspect and sign off completed work; keep downtime and backlog visible
• Own lockout/tagout, [hot work, confined space, arc flash] and incident investigations for the department
• Troubleshoot [mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, PLC] problems with the team
• Manage parts inventory, vendors and contractors
• Help build and hold to the maintenance budget of [range]
What you need
• [X] years of hands-on maintenance experience in [industrial / building / property] settings
• [X] years leading others, formally or as a lead technician
• Working knowledge of [mechanical / electrical / HVAC / PLC] systems
• Experience with a CMMS [name the one you use]
• [License or certification only if the job legally needs it]
• Able to be on call [frequency]
Nice to have
• [Reliability or planning experience]
• [EPA 608, electrical or boiler license]
• [Experience with your equipment brands]
What we offer
• [Pay range or salary], [overtime eligibility stated plainly]
• [On-call pay and rotation]
• [Benefits and the date they start]
• [Training budget and certifications paid]
• [Next role: maintenance manager, reliability, plant leadership]
How to apply
[A short form or a direct phone number for the hiring manager.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Hands-on experience | Keep it. BLS lists less than five years of related work experience as typical for entry, and O*NET places the occupation in Job Zone Three, where previous work-related experience is required. Ask for the years you actually need, not a round number. |
| Supervisory experience | Accept lead-technician experience. Many good supervisors come from the crew; requiring “3+ years as a supervisor” rules out your own best internal candidates. |
| Degree | Drop it unless the role is really a manager job. In O*NET’s survey, 54 percent said a high school diploma is the education a new hire needs, 17 percent some college and 13 percent a postsecondary certificate. |
| Licenses | Only where the work legally needs them: electrical licensing varies by state, and EPA Section 608 certification is required for technicians who service equipment that could release refrigerants. Say whether the supervisor needs one or only the crew. |
| Systems | Name the CMMS and ERP. A candidate who ran Maximo reads that line first. |
| On-call and overtime | State the rotation, whether it is paid, and whether the role is exempt. Hidden on-call is the classic early resignation. |
Customizing it by setting
Manufacturing
Downtime is the metric. Name the equipment (lines, presses, packaging, robotics), the PM compliance target, and whether you are moving toward planned or predictive maintenance.
Facilities and campuses
Schools, hospitals and office campuses lean on building systems (HVAC, boilers, life safety, electrical). Say how many square feet or buildings, and which inspections the supervisor owns.
Property management
Portfolio size, unit turns and resident work orders. Say how many units, how many sites, and whether the role drives between them.
Healthcare
Add infection control, life-safety testing and accreditation surveys to the duty list, and name them in the ad; experienced candidates look for them.
What maintenance supervisors earn
First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers had a median wage of $79,860 a year, about $38.39 an hour, in May 2025. For comparison, the general maintenance and repair workers most supervisors lead had a $49,590 median in the same period. On a plant floor, where crews are often better-paid mechanics and electricians, the supervisor’s pay floor rises with them.
There were 629,000 first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers in 2025, and BLS projects employment to grow 4 percent to 654,500 by 2035, with about 48,900 openings a year. BLS lists a high school diploma as typical entry education and less than five years of related work experience. These figures come from the BLS Employment Projections table; the Occupational Outlook Handbook has no full profile for this occupation.
What it costs to reach a maintenance supervisor
Supervisory roles fall in the management / professional role family in Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark: a median cost per applicant of $16.87 on Meta, a middle 50 percent band of $4.62 to $60.11, a blended $5.45 and a 16 percent apply rate. The technician and mechanic family, where most maintenance supervisors come from, ran a $13.41 median and the same 16 percent apply rate. The all-role median is $13.88.
That wide management band is the point. Campaigns that keep the form short and ask one or two real knockout questions (years hands-on, years leading people) land near the bottom of it. Across the benchmark, what happens after the click explains about 70 percent of the variation in cost per applicant. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Maintenance supervisor interview questions
These six get past the resume. For general supervisory questions, see supervisor interview questions, and score answers with an interview scorecard.
1. It is 7 a.m., a production line is down, a PM is overdue and a technician called out. Walk me through the first hour.
A good answer triages by safety and business impact, gets someone on the line immediately, reschedules the PM rather than skipping it, and tells production what to expect. Watch for candidates who try to do everything themselves.
2. How do you decide what goes on the preventive maintenance schedule?
Listen for manufacturer recommendations, failure history, criticality and CMMS data, and a sense of how they measured PM compliance before.
3. Tell me about a safety rule a technician did not want to follow. What did you do?
Strong answers are specific about lockout/tagout or similar, show they stopped the work, explained why, and followed up. “I have never had that happen” is a weak answer.
4. You were promoted over people who used to be your peers. How did you handle it?
Look for clear expectations, fairness, and continuing to respect their skill. It is a common transition into the role.
5. How do you decide whether to fix it in-house or call a contractor?
A good answer weighs skill, downtime, cost and warranty, and mentions checking the contractor’s work.
6. Which CMMS have you used, and what report did you look at every week?
You want a specific report (backlog, PM completion, mean time to repair), not “all of them.”
Building the whole department? See the maintenance technician, maintenance worker, maintenance planner, industrial maintenance mechanic, millwright and production supervisor job descriptions, and maintenance technician recruiting for the hiring side.
The job description is not the job ad
The template is the document. The ad has to get a working supervisor, or a lead tech ready to step up, to stop scrolling.
- First line: title, shift, pay and crew size.
- Say what they will not have to do: no 24/7 personal on-call, a planner on staff, a real parts budget. These are the details experienced candidates look for.
- Invite lead technicians to apply. Many of the best supervisors do not call themselves supervisors yet.
- Keep the application short. A supervisor candidate usually has a job and a phone.
More in job ad copywriting and internal recruiting for promoting from the crew.
Frequently asked questions
What does a maintenance supervisor do?
A maintenance supervisor plans and assigns maintenance work, leads a crew of technicians, inspects completed repairs, runs safety programs such as lockout/tagout, manages parts, vendors and contractors, tracks work in a CMMS and helps build the maintenance budget. Most still troubleshoot hard problems alongside the crew.
What are the main maintenance supervisor duties?
Scheduling work orders and preventive maintenance, assigning technicians by skill and priority, checking completed work, enforcing safety procedures and investigating incidents, managing inventory and contractor bids, reporting downtime and backlog, and hiring, training and coaching the team. O*NET lists inspecting completed work and monitoring safety as the top two tasks.
What qualifications does a maintenance supervisor need?
Hands-on maintenance experience is the core requirement; O*NET places the occupation in Job Zone Three, where previous work-related experience is required. BLS lists a high school diploma as typical entry education, and 54 percent of O*NET respondents said a high school diploma is what a new hire needs. Licenses depend on the work, such as EPA Section 608 for refrigerant equipment.
How much does a maintenance supervisor make?
First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers, the federal occupation that includes maintenance supervisors, had a median wage of $79,860 a year, about $38.39 an hour, in May 2025. Pay varies with industry, crew size and on-call load, and the posting should state overtime eligibility.
What is the difference between a maintenance supervisor and a maintenance manager?
A supervisor leads the crew day to day: assigning work, checking it and handling people issues on the floor. A manager usually owns the budget, strategy, capital projects and several supervisors. In smaller operations one person does both, which the job description should say plainly.
What should I ask in a maintenance supervisor interview?
Ask how they would handle a line-down emergency with a technician out, how they build a PM schedule, how they enforced a safety rule someone resisted, how they managed former peers, when they call a contractor, and which CMMS reports they reviewed weekly. Listen for specific examples and delegation.
Is there demand for maintenance supervisors?
BLS counted 629,000 first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers in 2025 and projects 4 percent growth to 654,500 by 2035, with about 48,900 openings a year. Most openings replace people who retire or move on, so promoting from your own crew is often the fastest source.
Should a maintenance supervisor be exempt or hourly?
It depends on salary level and actual duties under federal and state rules, not the title. A supervisor who spends most of the day doing repairs may not qualify as exempt. Check the U.S. Department of Labor’s guidance and your state’s rules, and state the classification in the posting.
How much does it cost to recruit a maintenance supervisor?
On Meta, the management and professional role family in our 2026 benchmark had a median cost per applicant of $16.87, with the middle half of campaigns between $4.62 and $60.11 and a 16 percent apply rate. The all-role median was $13.88.
Related job descriptions
Hiring a maintenance supervisor?
The description is the document. Getting it in front of working supervisors and lead technicians who are not on a job board is the part we do.
Wage, employment and projection data for first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers (SOC 49-1011): BLS Employment Projections Table 1.2, Occupational projections, 2025–35, and worker characteristics, 2025 (employment, projections, openings, May 2025 median wage, typical education and experience); the Occupational Outlook Handbook does not profile this occupation in full. Hourly median, tasks, software, education survey and work context: O*NET OnLine 49-1011.00. Comparison wage for general maintenance and repair workers: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, last modified 27 August 2026. EPA Section 608 technician certification page. Read at source 24 September 2026. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.