What Is a Maintenance Controller and How to Become One

By ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research Team

A maintenance controller performs maintenance and repairs on aircraft. As a maintenance controller, your responsibilities are to ensure that all aircraft at an airport or airfield meet appropriate quality standards and safety requirements and are ready for flight. Your duties include scheduling maintenance, logging all repairs, and coordinating with pilots to identify any issues that may occur with their planes. You also review flight logs to determine hardware issues, make calls to airplane manufacturers to obtain necessary parts for repairs, and ensure the general mechanicals of the airplanes.

To become a maintenance controller, you typically need a polytechnic degree for aeronautical engineering. There are also certification programs for working on aircraft, which some smaller airfields may accept in place of a postsecondary degree. You also need prior experience working at an airfield, particularly in a mechanical role, to gain the necessary skills for a maintenance controller. Additional qualifications include excellent communication skills and attention to detail, the ability to read and follow blueprints and repair instructions, and computer proficiency with operating specification applications for airplanes.