What’s the Role of a Maintenance Supervisor? (Skills & Salary)

What would happen to an apartment building or industrial warehouse if no one paid attention to keeping it up? It doesn’t take long for a minor leak in the roof to become a massive mold problem.

If you own a home, taking care of preventive maintenance and repairs is your responsibility. But when we’re talking about a large building or manufacturing plant, keeping everything up to code and running smoothly falls into the hands of a maintenance supervisor. 

What Is a Maintenance Supervisor?

A maintenance supervisor leads a team of maintenance technicians and oversees the maintenance activities they perform to ensure equipment and building systems are running smoothly. Typically, a maintenance supervisor is considered a part of middle management, which means they’re in charge of work schedules and assigning work orders to the appropriate maintenance staff. A good maintenance supervisor needs high-level organizational skills, but people skills are just as important. They’re in charge of leading and motivating their maintenance team members to complete projects efficiently. 

While it’s possible to manage small businesses without a maintenance supervisor, maintenance projects have many moving parts. For instance, troubleshooting a problem could require a maintenance mechanic or an electrician, but who’s going to determine the right person for the job? The sheer number of actions required to complete a fairly ordinary project can be daunting, and that’s if everything runs smoothly. If you work in property management or run any kind of business with crucial assets that need to be operational, hiring an experienced maintenance supervisor is usually a good move.

What Duties Does a Maintenance Supervisor Perform?

A maintenance supervisor oversees maintenance operations, organizing everything from preventive maintenance tasks to emergency maintenance needs to ensure that businesses see as little equipment downtime as possible. These are just a few examples of the duties performed by someone who holds the maintenance supervisor job title:

• Supervising, training and interviewing maintenance technicians
• Planning and assigning weekly maintenance tasks for maintenance technicians
• Creating a preventive maintenance schedule
• Ensuring that everyone follows health and safety regulations
• Helping to develop a maintenance budget 
• Tracking inventory of equipment and materials
• Overseeing and motivating staff, including managing their day-to-day and providing training or professional development

What Traits or Skills Are Required to Be a Maintenance Supervisor?

A maintenance supervisor doesn’t need an advanced degree to excel. A high school diploma is the minimum requirement, but a degree from a vocational school and professional certifications are a big plus. A CMRP or HVAC certification, for example, is helpful. Maintenance supervisors often work their way up from hands-on maintenance roles. 

Someone who typically thrives in a maintenance supervisor role possesses a combination of proven years of experience in similar roles and strong organizational skills, technical skills and people skills. When interviewing maintenance supervisor candidates, you’ll want to look for the following:

• Leadership skills: A good maintenance supervisor has strong interpersonal skills. To succeed in a management role like this one, clear, consistent communication is a must. A good leader can connect and motivate their team easily, providing the right mix of direction, accountability and empathy. They must also be a good judge of character to build a reliable maintenance team in the first place. Since projects don’t always go according to plan, conflict resolution skills are helpful, too. 
• Attention to detail: A large portion of the job is circumventing minor problems before they balloon into larger ones. There’s no daily checklist for a maintenance supervisor to cruise through. They must always be aware of their work environment, looking out for issues that others may not notice. 
• Problem-solving skills: Maintenance supervisors attempt to prevent problems as much as they can, but problems are part of the job. Having solid critical thinking skills and the ability to work well under pressure is important, especially if employee safety is at risk. 
• Organizational skills: This supervisory role requires excellent time management and organization. Figuring out how to manage many moving parts so that they all run smoothly enables maintenance supervisors to meet tight deadlines and use their resources efficiently.
• Budget and performance management skills: Part of the job is collaborating with higher management on budget development and goal setting as well as keeping the maintenance team on track, performing at the highest levels.
• Technical skills: It’s tough to be a maintenance supervisor if you’re not familiar with a wide range of building systems. Most supervisors have a solid understanding of electrical work, heating and A/C, and plumbing, just to name a few. 
• Tech savvy: Today’s maintenance supervisor typically uses a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to track maintenance. As such, working knowledge of maintenance software is helpful, particularly for larger maintenance workflows.

Most Common Types of Maintenance Supervisors

There are maintenance supervisor jobs in several industries, but these three are some of the most common:

Building Maintenance Supervisor

• Directs technicians in repair and maintenance projects for an apartment building or commercial real estate property and assigns preventive maintenance tasks as required.
• Oversees daily upkeep and operations of a building or property, including inspecting or repairing:
  • Mechanical systems
  • Electrical systems
  • Plumbing systems

Plant Maintenance Supervisor

• Directs a group of maintenance techs to perform maintenance in an industrial setting, including the inner workings of the physical building as well as all the equipment inside.
• Supervises the crew’s day-to-day activities at the work site.
• Communicates with the building users in regards to upcoming maintenance work.
• Oversees daily upkeep factory or plant operations, including inspecting or repairing:
  • Conveyor belts
  • Electrical systems
  • Other manufacturing assets

Public Works Maintenance Supervisor

• Leads a city’s crew of road maintenance workers to manage street sweeping, maintain road surfaces, keep storm drains operational and perform new construction.
• Oversees daily upkeep and operations of a city’s facilities and vehicles as well as potential landscaping or parking lot maintenance.

What’s the Pay for a Maintenance Supervisor?

Maintenance supervisor salaries vary widely depending on the job’s location, but the median annual salary in 2020 was around $70,000. According to ZipRecruiter, the national average hourly pay is $32. Indeed estimates $30 per hour, while Salary.com cites a more optimistic $47 per hour. 

While education and work experience play a role in salary, the scope of work is the largest factor. Supervising a small apartment complex is much less lucrative than managing a manufacturing plant with multiple high-tech buildings and pieces of equipment. 

Benefits of Becoming a Maintenance Supervisor

The first benefit of becoming a maintenance supervisor is that it offers a reasonable salary range without requiring the time and money spent getting a bachelor’s degree. If you’ve been working as a technician for years, getting promoted to a supervisor is a logical next step. As long as you have good critical thinking skills, a strong work ethic and appropriate licensing for conducting plumbing and electrical work, you likely have the chops to be a good maintenance supervisor. 

For those who want to earn more or further their career, the following certifications may help land more demanding roles:

• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP): Offered by the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP), the CMRP certification is given to maintenance workers who can demonstrate advanced skills in proactive maintenance, in addition to having strong leadership, organizational, management and business skills.
• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT): SMRP also offers the CMRT certification for technicians who hope to become supervisors. It evaluates a worker’s competency in proactive maintenance tactics and problem-solving skills.
• Certified Master Technician: The Professional Service Association awards this certification to maintenance personnel with demonstrated knowledge of residential building repairs, HVAC systems and customer service.
  

Job growth for maintenance supervisors is projected to be around 7 percent between 2020 and 2030, on par with the average national growth rate in the U.S. Interestingly, supervisors who are proficient in maintenance management software solutions like Coast will have better employment prospects. As we continue to learn how to use AI to optimize maintenance workflows, technological proficiency will be even more of an asset. 

For those who want to grow beyond the title of maintenance supervisor, there are options. It’s common for maintenance supervisors to graduate to maintenance managers, who lead all maintenance processes for a facility rather than focusing primarily on managing a maintenance team. With advanced certifications, maintenance supervisors may also become maintenance engineers who manage maintenance of equipment and systems in industrial settings.  

Regardless of the setting, maintenance supervisors have an opportunity to gain on-the-job leadership experience, make a good living and usually enjoy a decent benefits package.