Responsibilities of a Maintenance and Safety Engineer
As an engineer of maintenance and safety, you would have to be responsible for all facility maintenance activities. You have the responsibility to work towards the maintenance of compliance with the standards of the staffs, policies etc. Then it is your duty to do the inspection, keep all the details and reports on various hazards, areas and facilities' operations.
One is responsible for plumbing, refrigeration, HVAC systems, electrical, fixtures, etc. As a maintenance and safety engineer, you need to work as per the guidelines of rules and regulations related to state, local and federal nature. You must be well aware and have the knowledge of all new safety policies and sanitation policies. You are also required to do the administration of preventive maintenance of all the facilities. As an engineer, you would be responsible for all repairs and mechanical functions related to electrical, plumbing and other equipments. You would require maintaining the cleanliness, ensuring smoke detectors, fire alarms, fire extinguishers and also check that the other safety measures are being followed. It will be your responsibility to ensure that your organization is in compliance and sync with the regulations of OSHA or Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Apart from all the above responsibilities and duties, a maintenance and safety engineer has some typical duties to undertake. These activities include preparing designs for the various maintenance procedure, methods and strategies. Then he or she also has to plan, schedule all planned and also unplanned activities, diagnose various breakdowns, problems, do regular inspections, supervise, instruct and also direct the maintenance fitters, technicians and other staffs.
Communicating with the customers and the clients is the duty of a maintenance and safety engineer, and then he or she has to keep a control of all the maintenance stores, equipments and tools, monitor and control the costs of maintenance, write down the strategies of maintenance, so as to aid in the guidelines of commissioning and installations process.
Requirements
Academic
A bachelor's degree in science or engineering is needed to become a maintenance and safety engineer. This takes about four years. But then if you have taken any course from a proprietary institution, having familiarity in plumbing, HVAC, norms of this occupation would be really helpful.
If you have a specialized degree in safety management or occupational safety and health it will be an added advantage. Several companies provide additional training to its employees. Safety engineers are required to keep themselves updated about new developments in their field.
For acquiring a successful career in safety and maintenance engineering, it is good for you to have excellent skills in mathematical and scientific research, practice etc.
Chances would become better if you have knowledge about crisis assessment, environmental protection and also various natural crisis strategies. You must be capable in undertaking several professional duties and responsibilities, especially in relation to legal matters, engineering, changes and operations. You must also possess excellent leadership skills, so as to be able to counsel and guide all the other teams and management staffs. Good verbal and written communications skills also help.
You have to portray skills like working without any supervision, carry huge amounts of work weight and be able to wait for long. Communications skills are a must, as you would need to interact with vendors, clients, colleagues, authorities, management, etc.
Training
Professional training can be obtained in a number of programs including,
- Engineering Maintenance Level 3
- Maintaining Plant and Systems (Instrument and Control, Mechanical and Electrical) Level 3
- Engineering Maintenance and Installation Level 2
- Process Engineering Maintenance levels 2 and 3
Career Prospects
This particular field in HVAC is expected to grow with job opportunities by 9% by 2016 and therefore, there is an expected boost in the number of job opportunities with 25,000 openings in this area of maintenance and security engineering.
The basic salary of a maintenance and safety engineer is around $54,935 and this can vary with, skills, expertise and experience. The salary is expected to grow with extended years of work experience and the nature of the employing company.
It is not easy though to get a good opportunity in this field, as a candidate must wait for a long duration, before getting the perfect one. You as an aspiring candidate must look for work prospects within various industries. Safety engineers are employed in industrial plants, stores, construction sites, trucking industry, hotels, schools/colleges, etc.
