Operations and Maintenance Specialist

Career Area: Manufacturing and Production

Occupation Group: Plant and System Operation

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Operations and Maintenance Specialist earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $44,606

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $59,888

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Works for a company to assess operations and businesses practices. Identifies ways to improve efficiency in information or records storage, equipment use, supply chain processes or administrative support practices.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Operations and Maintenance Specialist is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
• Preventive Maintenance: Machine maintenance or the preventive maintenance (PM) has the following meanings: The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects.
• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
• Physical Abilities: Physical Abilities, which refers to the ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs. These abilities often require strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Repair: Restoration of a broken, damaged, or failed device, equipment, part, or property to an acceptable operating or usable condition or state.
• Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
• Predictive / Preventative Maintenance: Working experience of Predictive / Preventative Maintenance. The idea behind preventive maintenance (PM) is that by performing regular maintenance on equipment, you lessen the chances of that equipment failing. It's the same idea as taking your car in for regular oil changes to preempt a total breakdown.
• Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
• HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Operations and Maintenance Specialist that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Wastewater Collection: Wastewater collection systems gather the used water from our homes, businesses and industries and convey it to a wastewater treatment plant.
• System Operation: An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs.
• Power Plant Operations: A power plant is an installation where electrical power is generated for distribution.
• Facility Operation: Facility management (or facilities management or FM) is a professional management discipline focused upon the efficient and effective delivery of support services for the organizations that it serves.
• Compressed Air System: Working experience of Compressed Air System. A basic compressed air system is made up of the following components: The Air Intake Filter is a device composed of fibrous materials designed to trap atmospheric airborne particles such as dust, pollen, mold, etc. before they can reach the compressor.

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:

• Power Plant Operations: A power plant is an installation where electrical power is generated for distribution.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Utilities Technician
• Operations And Maintenance Technician
• Operations And Maintenance Manager
• Operations And Maintenance O&M Technician
• Operations And Maintenance O&M Manager

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Maintenance Supervisor
• Maintenance Superintendent
• Facilities Engineer