How To Build A Career Development Plan For Maintenance

Contents

Accelerating growth with new funding and partnerships

See MaintainX in action

Take a live, one-on-one tour with a product expert to see how MaintainX can help you.

The path to the highest levels of maintenance leadership is no longer paved solely by technical expertise. While engineering foundations are still important, a recent analysis of 100 job posts for maintenance leaders revealed that today’s leaders need a diverse range of experience and skills to progress their careers, including data analysis, risk management, team efficiency, and digital transformation.

This article provides a comprehensive skills matrix to help you diagnose your current level of ability in eight key areas and identify the specific milestones needed to reach the elite tier of maintenance management.

The maintenance leader’s skills matrix and self-evaluation template

To understand what top-tier organizations expect from their leaders, we analyzed 100 maintenance leadership job posts to identify the skills that appear most frequently. This self-evaluation matrix breaks down eight core categories into three stages: Developing, Above Average, and Elite.

Use the skills matrix to quickly pinpoint where your skills are strong and where you can level up. By grading yourself against these benchmarks, you can focus on the high-impact areas that hiring managers value most.

Skill category	Developing	Above average	Elite
Work Management	☐ Maintain a basic preventive maintenance calendar. ☐ Coordinate daily maintenance tasks. ☐ Lead the response to urgent breakdowns and reduce MTTR.	☐ Run a weekly maintenance planning process. ☐ Use a clear framework to prioritize and execute work. ☐ Plan shutdowns or changeovers with cross-functional input.	☐ Design and oversee a proactive maintenance schedule for a site/sites. ☐ Create and enforce standardized maintenance procedures. ☐ Use structured methods to optimize uptime and labor across shifts/sites.
Asset and Reliability Strategy	☐ Ensure PMs are created and completed for major assets. ☐ Restore equipment quickly and effectively after failure. ☐ Participate in RCAs.	☐ Review and adjust PMs based on data. ☐ Lead RCAs and corrective action. ☐ Implement targeted predictive or condition-based procedures.	☐ Lead a formal reliability strategy. ☐ Deploy a full predictive or condition-based maintenance program. ☐ Show how reliability reduced downtime/costs across a site/sites.
Continuous Improvement	☐ Identify recurring issues and suggest incremental improvement. ☐ Participate in kaizen events or improvement meetings. ☐ Follow existing standards and help implement changes.	☐ Lead larger CI efforts tied to downtime, safety, quality, or cost. ☐ Use structured RCAs (ex. 5 Whys) to eliminate repeat failures. ☐ Standardize improvements into SOPs and sustain gains.	☐ Lead a formal CI program at a site/sites linked to reliability and production. ☐ Deliver and sustain measurable results tied to business objectives. ☐ Coach teams on CI program and embed CI into culture.
Reporting and Analytics	☐ Track work and basic metrics (ex. PM compliance). ☐ Generate standard reports. ☐ Occasionally explain reports to stakeholders.	☐ Own KPIs linked to business outcomes (ex. OEE). ☐ Use data for daily and long-term decision-making. ☐ Regularly present reports to stakeholders.	☐ Design and manage maintenance dashboards for a site/sites. ☐ Use advanced analytics, like cost/benefit, to guide strategy. ☐ Influence major business decisions with data.
Safety and Compliance	☐ Enforce safety requirements. ☐ Ensure inspections, training, and permits are completed. ☐ Participate in incident investigations and audits. Implement corrective actions.	☐ Proactively identify hazards and risk reduction plans. ☐ Create/standardize safety programs and lead audits. ☐ Lead training and permitting for non-routine or high-risk work.	☐ Develop advanced safety programs and lead broad compliance activities. ☐ Work cross-funtionally to design safer systems and processes. ☐ Institute/maintain a proactive safety and compliance culture.
Digital Systems Management	☐ Use a CMMS to create, assign, and close work orders. ☐ Run basic CMMS reports. ☐ Use required digital tools.	☐ Configure/improve CMMS setups and workflows for a site. ☐ Train others on CMMS usage and monitor data quality. ☐ Help integrate a CMMS and/or introduce additional digital tools.	☐ Responsible for several tools (CMMS, PLC/SCADA, etc.) for a site/sites. ☐ Enforce clear data standards and governance for maintenance systems. ☐ Lead adoption and integration for digital systems.
Leadership and People Management	☐ Manage daily staffing, schedules, and assignments. ☐ Handle onboarding and basic training ☐ Provide daily direction and address performance issues.	☐ Set clear expectations and objectives for employees. ☐ Coach and develop team members with regular feedback. ☐ Communicate effectively across shifts and departments.	☐ Drive a high-performing reliability and safety culture. ☐ Create and execute long-term development plans for team members. ☐ Lead major change management.
Maintenance Operations and Business Management	☐ Manage a basic maintenance budget and costs. ☐ Manage basic parts inventory and purchasing. ☐ Support capital projects with input and execution.	☐ Build a detailed maintenance budget, track costs, and adjust spend. ☐ Use structured inventory practices to manage spares. ☐ Define requirements and evaluate vendors for capital projects.	☐ Position maintenance as a strategic function with senior-level stakeholders. ☐ Routinely prioritize, justify, and help implement CAPEX projects ☐ Collaborate with senior leadership on long-term strategy and planning.

A maintenance leader’s career development plan: How to move from developing to elite

Advancing through this matrix requires a deliberate shift from tactical execution to strategic oversight. Use the following suggestions to prioritize your development across each category.