What we look for
- Maintains and repairs conveyors, pumps, motors, gearboxes, compressors and other production machinery to a proper standard — mechanical assembly, alignment, bearings, seals and drives.
- Hands-on experience installing, maintaining and fault-finding hydraulic and pneumatic systems — cylinders, valves, pumps, actuators and air lines.
- Diagnoses machinery faults methodically under breakdown pressure, traces the root cause rather than swapping parts, and restores equipment to service quickly and safely.
- Carries out preventive/planned (PPM) and corrective maintenance to schedule, keeps records, and helps reduce unplanned downtime.
- Follows safe systems of work and permit-to-work / lock-out procedures; dependable, sustained relevant employment and sees jobs through.
Questions you'll be asked
These are the questions the application form asks. You do not need to answer yes to every one — they tell us where your experience actually sits.
- How many years' experience do you have in industrial / mechanical maintenance
- Which machinery and equipment have you maintained? (e.g. conveyors, pumps, motors, gearboxes, compressors)
- Which types of maintenance have you carried out
- Do you have hands-on experience with hydraulic and pneumatic systems
- What type of site have you mostly worked in
- Do you hold a mechanical or maintenance trade qualification, from any country? (e.g. a fitter, millwright or mechanical apprenticeship, City & Guilds, SENAI Mecânica de Manutenção, ITI Fitter, TESDA NC II/III, or your own country's equivalent)
- Do you also have basic electrical or PLC maintenance experience
Qualifications that help
None of these is essential, and a qualification from any country counts.
- Hydraulics / pneumatics training
- Welding / fabrication certificate
- PLC / basic electrical maintenance training
- Safety / permit-to-work training
We assess English at around CEFR A2 for this role — enough to follow instructions and raise a problem with the person you work for. That is our own standard, not an Irish legal requirement; there is no English test in the permit rules for this job.
The work permit
This role is eligible for an Irish employment permit. The job normally has to pass a 28-day Labour Market Needs Test — the employer runs that, advertising the role with JobsIreland/EURES and on a second jobs platform for 28 unbroken days. Either you or the employer can be named as the applicant on the permit itself; on our placements it is the employer. Either way the cost is not yours to carry: under section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024 an employer cannot take the permit fee, recruitment costs, or travel money they have already paid you out of your wages, or ask you to pay any of it back. Doing that is a criminal offence.
Salary thresholds and any quota are set per occupation and move during the year, so we confirm the current position for your exact role with DETE before an employer advertises — rather than quote you a figure here that could be out of date by the time you read it.
How long it takes
From an employer offering the job to you starting work, in our experience the realistic timeline is 6 to 8 months if you need an entry visa — the Philippines, for example. From a country that does not need an entry visa, such as Brazil, allow about 4 to 5 months. That covers the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, DETE permit processing, the visa and travel. DETE processes applications in date order and publishes its current dates; we do not quote a figure that could be out of date by the time you read it.
If you are already living in Ireland on a permit, the position is different — tell us on the form and we will explain where you stand.
Apply
The application takes about ten minutes. You will be asked about your experience, and you can upload a CV and record a short voice clip so we can put you forward properly.