What is the average Maintenance Engineer salary in the UK?
We’ve reviewed over 2,000 permanent, full-time Maintenance Engineer job adverts posted April 2024 -> April 2025. We focused on roles within manufacturing, FMCG, heavy industry, automation, automotive, and production.
This is a reflection of what the market looks like right now on the job boards. From the average Maintenance Engineer salary in the UK, to how shift patterns affect pay, to what’s actually included in a “competitive benefits package.”
Whether you’re a hiring manager benchmarking for your next vacancy or a candidate weighing up your next move, this report will give you a realistic picture of the market. The real take-home message is: to stand out on job boards, you need to be paying more than the majority to compete for top engineers.
One thing before we dive in…
A huge number of adverts still don’t include a salary. And it puts engineers off. “Competitive salary” means nothing when candidates are scrolling and over 90% have said they’ll skip right past if there’s no figure listed.
Maintenance Engineer Salary Snapshot
We found salaries for permanent Maintenance Engineers typically sit between £34,000 and £56,000 on the job boards.
Yes, that’s a wide range. But it makes sense.
Roles that involve shift work (especially 4 on 4 off) command a clear premium. Meanwhile, days roles tend to sit at the lower end. (And there’s always some anomaly’s where vacancies are just advertising extremely low or very much under paying)
Regionally, while averages are surprisingly similar across England, London and the South East naturally come out on top. The Midlands is climbing, especially for shift-based roles. Here’s how it breaks down:
| Region | Average Salary |
| North East | £40,816 |
| North West | £41,243 |
| Yorkshire & Humber | £42,011 |
| East Midlands | £46,159 |
| West Midlands | £44,745 |
| East of England | £41,384 |
| London | £54,812 |
| South East | £52,478 |
| South West | £41,039 |
With these salaries, you’re really going to struggle attracting the good engineers.
With a clear skills gap across engineering, it’s a candidate-driven market. And no one seems to think its closing anytime soon.
Good news for engineers. Less so for hiring managers, particularly those in smaller companies competing with bigger brand names.
Skillset-Specific Salaries
| Role Type | Avg. Salary | % of Roles |
| Multi-Skilled Engineers | £42,200 | 60% |
| Electrical Maintenance Eng. | £42,000+ | 30% |
| Mechanical Maintenance Eng. | £40,000 | 10% |
The most in-demand profile by far is multi-skilled… but don’t be fooled into thinking this always means a true 50:50 split.
In reality, these roles lean 70:30 or 60:40 towards either bias. Employers are often advertising for multi-skilled because they want flexibility. Even if what they really need is an electrical engineer with the confidence to handle a spanner when needed. Or a mechanical engineer who can turn their hand to electrical maintenance when the need arises.
Mechanical-only roles are more rarely advertised than electrical-only roles. But it’s not because the demand isn’t there for fitters, it’s because they’re advertising the vacancy as multi-skilled, so they don’t limit the candidate pool.
Salary by Shift Pattern
Unsurprisingly, shift work pays more. And in some cases, significantly more.
| Shift Pattern | Avg. Salary | % of Roles (approx.) |
| Monday–Friday (Days) | £41,000 | 22% |
| 4 on 4 off / continental | £50,000 | 40% |
| 3-Shift Rotation | £46,000 | 12% |
| Panama | £46,500 | 7% |
| Double Days | £43,000 | 15% |
Days:
These roles are attractive for work-life balance but pay less due to lack of unsociable hours, so many adverts sitting at the lower end of the range. That said, if work-life balance is key, this is still the preferred option for many candidates.
4 on 4 off:
Is the most common and highest-paid pattern. These roles often involve 12-hour days/nights and full weekend rotation. So, the £50k average reflects the premium needed to attract people to unsociable hours. With overtime on top of this, you can earn a lot with this shift pattern.
Panama and 3-shift:
These rotations are less common but still present. Employers offer decent salaries to attract candidates willing to take on these more complex rotas.
Double days:
Are still common in manufacturing. But from what we’re hearing from candidates, they’re the marmite of shift patterns (you either love it or hate it). While they don’t carry the same premium as nights or 4 on 4 off, they tend to pay more than days and offer a middle ground.
Other:
A few niche patterns showed up in adverts (e.g., dedicated nights shifts). Night-only Mon-Fri positions, when offered, had high salaries (often £45k+ range) to attract candidates, though only a handful of adverts were exclusively nights. And if they followed the 4/on/4/off pattern they were included in the average above.
Some extras to note:
These are where the averages lie in terms of roles that are being advertised. But we frequently run polls on our LinkedIn to gather insights on engineers’ salary expectations for various shift types.
Recently, we asked engineers what it would take for them to consider working shifts, and almost everyone said £53k or more. Let that sink in. The average salary for shifts based on what’s actually being advertise hardly comes close to what engineers need to move into a shift role.
When it comes to Days roles, the majority of engineers would want £49,000 or more before moving to a different role on this schedule. This is miles off what many vacancies are advertising which just goes to show, salaries need to go up for you to get the good engineers.
Most Common Benefits (and Details)
For engineers, salary is the most important part of the package. But benefits make the difference when offers are close.
If you can’t stretch the salary, the benefits need to work harder.
Maintenance Engineer job adverts commonly highlight various benefits. The most frequently mentioned benefits are:
| Benefit | Prevalence | Typical Details |
| Overtime | 50%+ | Paid at 1.5x or 2x. Can boost salary to £50k+ total |
| Holidays | 40–50% | 25 days + 8 BH standard. Flex/buy-sell schemes appear |
| Pension | 50–60% | Employer matched up to 5–8% is common |
| Healthcare | 10–20% | Private medical or cash plans (mostly large employers) |
| Bonuses | 40% | 5–10% annual bonus or performance-related pay |
| Other perks | Varies | Life insurance, shares, career development, discounts |
What stood out to us:
- Overtime is still a big selling point, especially in shift-based roles. Many candidates factor this into total earnings and treat it as an expectation, not a bonus.
- Holiday and pension are now considered standard. If a role doesn’t include at least 25 days holiday or a solid pension contribution, it’s at a disadvantage.
- Healthcare and bonuses are less frequent but act as strong differentiators—particularly in larger organisations.
- Training and development were mentioned in many adverts, usually to support internal growth and retain engineers for the long term.
Other benefits frequently noted in adverts include life insurance (e.g. 4× salary life cover), training & career development programs, shift allowances (already reflected in salary for most), and things like company share-save schemes or employee discount programs.
Many job ads emphasise training, certifications, and progression opportunities as non-monetary benefits to attract candidates into what are often long-term careers
What this means for:
Employers:
- If you want to secure the top engineers, you need to be offering salaries that go above and beyond the market average.
- Make overtime, training, and progression plans a selling point in your job ads.
- If your benefits package is strong, lead with it. If it’s not, improve it.
Engineers:
- Being multi-skilled and open to shift work massively increases your value.
- Always consider the total package – salary is important, but so are your hours, training, holidays, and pensions.
- If your current role hasn’t moved with the market, it might be time to explore what’s out there.