A hotel chief engineer runs the department that keeps the building working: guest rooms, kitchens, pools, laundry and the boilers and chillers behind them. They plan preventive maintenance, lead the technicians and outside contractors, keep fire and life-safety records ready for inspection, and get out-of-order rooms back on sale.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Chief Engineer keeps the building, its systems and its guest rooms working and safe. You'll run preventive maintenance and work orders, manage the engineering team and contractors, keep life-safety systems tested and documented, control utility costs, and plan capital repairs with the General Manager. Every out-of-order room is a room the hotel can't sell.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Run the preventive maintenance program for guest rooms, kitchens, mechanical rooms and public areas in [your maintenance software].
Keep life-safety systems tested, inspected and documented: fire alarm, sprinklers, extinguishers, emergency lighting, kitchen hood suppression and generator.
Manage HVAC, boilers, chillers, water heaters, pools and spas, laundry equipment and building controls.
Schedule and supervise contractors for elevators, fire systems, pest control, roofing and other specialty work.
Track out-of-order rooms and get them back in service as soon as a safe repair allows.
Manage the engineering budget, parts inventory, utility use and capital project bids.
Keep the water management plan for Legionella current, with logs for pools, spas, cooling towers and water heaters.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review open work orders, out-of-order rooms and overnight problems in the engineering log.
Assign the day's work orders and preventive maintenance to technicians.
Walk mechanical rooms and the roof, and check readings on boilers, chillers and pumps.
Report at the morning meeting which rooms are out of order and when they'll return.
Meet contractors on site and inspect their work before signing off.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Out-of-order room nights: [your target].
Preventive maintenance completed on schedule: [your target].
Work orders closed within your standard time: [your target].
Energy and water cost per occupied room: [your target].
[5+] years in hotel, hospital or commercial building maintenance, including [2+] years leading a team.
Hands-on skills in HVAC, plumbing, electrical and building controls.
Knows fire and life-safety testing requirements and works with the local fire marshal.
EPA Section 608 certification for refrigerant work.
Stationary engineer, boiler or other license where your city or state requires one.
Certified Pool & Spa Operator (CPO) or [your state's] pool operator certification, where your state or county requires it.
6. Preferred Experience
Certified Engineering Operations Professional (CEOP) or similar hotel engineering training.
Experience with building automation and guest room energy management systems.
Has managed a major equipment replacement in an occupied hotel.
Electrical, HVAC or plumbing license.
7. Physical Requirements
Climb ladders, work on roofs and in tight mechanical spaces, and lift up to [50] pounds.
Walk the full property many times a day.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Weekday day schedule, on call around the clock for emergencies.
Works in mechanical rooms, on roofs, in kitchens and in occupied guest rooms.
Exposure to heat, noise, chemicals and electrical hazards; protective equipment provided.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief engineer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
A chief engineer at a hospital or office tower also runs boilers and fire systems. A hotel adds guests sleeping above the work, rooms that have to be sold tonight, and pools and spas full of people on vacation.
A broken room is a room you can't sell
An office can wait a day for a part. A hotel can't rent a room with a dead heater or a leaking toilet, and on a sold-out night one down room can mean sending a guest to another hotel. The chief engineer tells the morning meeting which rooms are out of order and when they'll be back, then sets the repair order by what the front desk needs.
Life-safety tests leave a paper trail
Your local fire code sets how often the fire alarm, sprinklers, kitchen hood system and exit lights get tested, and the fire marshal reads the records. OSHA has its own rule for portable fire extinguishers. Each one gets a look every month and a maintenance check every year, and the yearly date goes on record. A missed test is a finding even when the system works, so the logs count as much as the gear. Source: 29 CFR 1910.157: Portable fire extinguishers (Cornell LII).
Pool drains fall under federal law
A federal pool safety law, the Virginia Graeme Baker Act, covers hotel pools and spas. Each drain needs a cover that meets the federal standard. A pool with one main drain that can be blocked, or drains less than three feet apart on the same plane, also needs a second system to stop suction entrapment. CPSC advises replacing any cover past the date printed on it. Source: CPSC: Pool and spa drain cover safety letter to public pool operators (April 2024).
Still water is a Legionella risk
CDC warns that Legionella grows in warm water that sits still or lacks enough disinfectant. Hotels have a lot of that: floors closed in the slow season, empty rooms, hot tubs, cooling towers and fountains. The chief engineer keeps the water management plan current, checks the readings it calls for, and acts when one is out of range. Source: CDC: Legionella control for hotel owners and managers.
Refrigerant work needs the right EPA card
Connecting gauges to a system, or putting refrigerant in or taking it out, takes EPA Section 608 certification, and the type depends on the gear. Type I covers small appliances, Type II covers medium- to very high-pressure systems, and Type III covers low-pressure ones. Universal covers all three. A full-service hotel can have all three kinds, so check which card each tech holds before you hand out the work. Source: U.S. EPA: Section 608 technician certification requirements.
How much hotel chief engineers make
The closest BLS group for hotel chief engineers is facilities managers. Facilities managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $96,100 a year ($46.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $106,660 median for facilities managers in all industries. About 5,630 of the 156,180 facilities managers in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Usually salaried, often with a yearly bonus tied to the hotel's budget, guest scores or inspection results. Being on call comes with the job, so say in the ad how call-ins and backup coverage work.
Hotels and resorts
$96,100$96,100 median Middle half $76,090–$119,980 10th–90th $61,120–$155,200
All industries
$106,660$106,660 median Middle half $82,020–$138,870 10th–90th $64,480–$176,120
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k$200k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$61,120
$76,090
$96,100
$119,980
$155,200
All industries
$64,480
$82,020
$106,660
$138,870
$176,120
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Hands-on HVAC, plumbing, electrical and controls skill, enough to judge a contractor's work
Fire and life-safety records that have held up to a fire marshal's inspection
Builds an engineering budget, gets capital bids and stays inside both
Leads technicians who work days, evenings and overnights
Explains a repair plan plainly to the general manager, the front desk or an upset guest
Holds EPA Section 608 certification
Teach these on the job
Your brand's engineering standards and audit checklist
Your work order system and how it marks rooms out of order
Your water management plan and the logs it calls for
Your service contracts, warranties and preferred contractors
Your guest room energy management settings
Your local fire marshal's inspection habits
Hotel engineering runs on a work order and preventive maintenance system, such as HotSOS, Quore or ALICE, often linked to the property management system so the front desk sees which rooms are down. Expect a building automation system for the central plant and, in many hotels, a guest room energy management system. List your main equipment in the ad (boilers, chillers or PTACs, pools and spas, laundry), because a chief who has run the same kind of plant settles in faster.
Hotel chief engineer interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Every target in the template is a blank for you to fill. Base each one on a year of your own work orders, utility bills and inspection reports, and expect them to shift between busy and slow seasons.
Out-of-order room nights
Count each night a room couldn't be sold because of a repair, from the property management system. Review the list weekly by cause: waiting on parts, waiting on a contractor or short on labor.
Preventive maintenance completed on schedule
Tasks finished by their due date against tasks scheduled, from your maintenance software. Report guest room rotations and plant equipment apart, so a strong room count can't hide a skipped boiler service.
Work orders closed within your standard time
Set a standard for each type, such as guest calls, routine repairs and projects. Measure the share closed inside it from the opened and closed times your work order system records.
Energy and water cost per occupied room
Divide the month's utility bills by occupied room nights. Set it beside the same month a year earlier, and allow for a heat wave, a cold snap or a big group before you read much into a change.
Life-safety inspection deficiencies
Count items written up by the fire marshal, your fire system contractor and brand or insurance audits. Track how long each stays open until it's fixed and signed off.
Career path
Maintenance technicianLearns the building on guest calls, room rotations and pool checks.
Assistant chief engineerRuns the preventive maintenance program and the contractors, and covers when the chief is away.
Chief engineerOwns the building's systems, the engineering budget and the life-safety records.
Regional director of engineeringLeads engineering across several hotels or a large resort, including the capital plan.
It depends on the equipment and the state. Refrigerant work needs EPA certification in every state. Some states license the people who run boilers. Minnesota, for one, requires a license of the right grade to operate a boiler. Pool rules vary too. Minnesota counts hotel pools as public pools, and its rules call for a certified pool operator who retakes the course every five years. Check your state and city before you put a license in the ad.
How much does a hotel chief engineer make?
Facilities managers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $96,100 a year ($46.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $76,090 and $119,980 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Can a chief engineer from a hospital or office building run a hotel?
Often, yes. The boilers, chillers, fire systems and contractor work carry over. Ask how they handle three things a hotel adds: repairs in rooms where guests are sleeping, pressure to get rooms back on sale the same day, and the pools, kitchens and laundry that office buildings don't have. A candidate who has worked in an occupied building at night will adjust faster.
How do you replace major equipment while the hotel stays open?
Plan it for your slowest weeks and check the dates with sales so it doesn't land on a big group. Block the rooms nearest the noise, rent temporary heating, cooling or hot water if the swap leaves a gap, and tell the front desk what to say to guests. Ask chief engineer candidates to walk you through one they've done.
Which work does a chief engineer hand to contractors?
Elevator service, fire alarm and sprinkler testing, hood cleaning, pest control and roofing usually go to outside firms, along with big replacements. The chief engineer gets the bids, books the visits, walks the work before signing off and keeps the reports. So the job needs someone who can read a proposal and push back on a vague one.
How should on-call work be set up for a chief engineer?
Share it. A chief who takes every leak call at two in the morning burns out. A common setup rotates after-hours calls among the assistant chief and senior technicians, with the chief as backup for the big failures. For hourly techs in that rotation, a call-in is paid work time. Waiting on call also counts as work if they have to stay on site, or near enough that the time isn't really theirs.
