Equipment Maintenance Engineer

THE PANTHER GROUP; Oxford (MA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The Panther Group is seeking an Equipment Maintenance Engineer in the Worcester County area to support the reliability, performance, and lifecycle of advanced production equipment. This hands-on role focuses on troubleshooting, preventive maintenance, and collaboration with maintenance technicians and manufacturing teams.

The ideal candidate has a mechanical/engineering background, 2–5 years of hands-on equipment support, and experience with automated systems and vacuum technology.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, Manufacturing, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Troubleshoot and support maintenance of complex automated equipment.
• Diagnose mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, vacuum, and control issues.
• Support vacuum and deposition equipment, chambers, pumps, seals, and gauges.
• Perform root-cause analysis for downtime and quality issues.
• Develop and improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
• Create and update documentation, SOPs, and service records.

Skills

Mechanical aptitude

Troubleshooting

Problem solving

Documentation

Team collaboration

Vacuum systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Job description

About the Opportunity

A well-established advanced manufacturing organization in the Worcester County area is seeking an Equipment Maintenance Engineer to support the reliability, performance, and lifecycle of sophisticated production equipment. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys getting into the equipment, troubleshooting complex problems, improving reliability, and working closely with maintenance technicians and manufacturing teams. The ideal candidate will have a combination of engineering education, strong mechanical aptitude, and hands-on experience supporting automated manufacturing equipment. Experience with vacuum systems and vacuum deposition equipment is highly desirable.

What You'll Do

• Troubleshoot and support maintenance of complex automated manufacturing equipment.
• Diagnose mechanical, electrical, electronic, pneumatic, hydraulic, vacuum, thermal, PLC, servo, VFD, and motion-control issues.
• Support high-powered vacuum and deposition equipment, including vacuum chambers, pumps, valves, seals, gauges, leak-detection systems, power supplies, motion systems, cooling systems, and related components.
• Support equipment recovery, repairs, chamber maintenance, vacuum leak diagnosis, and recurring-failure investigations.
• Perform root-cause analysis for equipment downtime, repeat failures, quality issues, and other equipment-related problems.
• Develop and improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
• Review equipment history, failure data, OEM recommendations, and equipment criticality to identify reliability improvements.
• Support equipment modifications, upgrades, installations, and commissioning.
• Monitor equipment performance and identify opportunities to improve uptime and reduce recurring issues.
• Create and update equipment documentation, technical procedures, and SOPs.
• Maintain accurate equipment records, maintenance history, spare-parts information, schematics, drawings, manuals, and service documentation.
• Support equipment return-to-production activities following repairs or modifications, including functional testing and calibration coordination.
• Collaborate with maintenance technicians, operators, engineers, and manufacturing teams to troubleshoot equipment issues.
• Coordinate with OEMs, contractors, and outside repair vendors as needed.
• Support technical troubleshooting and provide guidance to maintenance technicians.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Approximately 2-5 years of equipment engineering, maintenance engineering, manufacturing engineering, or hands-on equipment support experience.
• Strong mechanical aptitude and hands-on troubleshooting ability.
• Experience troubleshooting automated manufacturing equipment.
• Experience with mechanical and electrical systems and industrial controls.
• Vacuum systems experience is highly desirable, particularly high-vacuum or vacuum deposition equipment.
• Ability to read and interpret electrical schematics, mechanical drawings, pneumatic diagrams, P&IDs, and technical documentation.
• Experience with preventive maintenance, root-cause analysis, equipment upgrades, or reliability improvement projects.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with both engineering and maintenance personnel.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in one or more of the following environments is highly desirable: Semiconductor Photonics/optics Precision manufacturing Thin-film/coating Vacuum technology Advanced electronics Medical device Aerospace Other highly automated or technically complex manufacturing environments
• Additional valuable experience includes: Vacuum deposition Sputtering E-beam or thermal evaporation Thin-film/coating equipment Vacuum leak detection PLC-controlled equipment Robotics and automation Motion-control systems Industrial networks Chillers and cooling systems Clean manufacturing environments CMMS systems Reliability-centered maintenance FMEA / TPM / Lean manufacturing

Schedule & On-Call Monday-Friday, 7:00 AM-3:30 PM