What Does a Facilities Manager Do? Pay, Skills and How to Start

Every office tower, shopping centre, hospital, airport, school and distribution centre in Australia has someone making sure the lifts run, the air-con works, the fire systems are compliant and the contractors turn up on time. That person is the facilities manager, and it's one of the most underrated careers in property.

It's stable, well paid, varied, and getting more interesting every year as buildings get smarter. Here's what the job involves, what it pays, which qualifications help in Australia and New Zealand, and how to get started.

What is a facilities manager?

A facilities manager (FM) looks after the day-to-day operation of buildings for whoever owns or occupies them. SEEK's facilities manager career guide sums it up well: they keep a building safe, clean and productive for the people inside, coordinate maintenance and repairs, manage contractors, and monitor operating costs and income.

You'll find FMs working for three main types of employer:

• Property owners and managers such as commercial landlords and their agencies (think CBRE, Knight Frank, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield), looking after office, retail and industrial assets.
• Outsourced FM companies such as ISS, Downer, Ventia and Sodexo, which run facilities under contract for government, defence, health, retail and corporate clients.
• In-house teams at councils, hospitals, universities, schools, airports, hotels and big corporates.

It's mostly a commercial property career, although FMs also run large residential and mixed-use developments, retirement villages and student accommodation.

What does a facilities manager do day to day?

No two days are the same. A typical week might include:

• Planned maintenance. Scheduling the regular servicing of lifts, HVAC, fire systems, generators and plant so nothing breaks unexpectedly.
• Reactive maintenance. The chiller fails on a 38-degree day, a pipe bursts on level 12, or a roller door jams at the loading dock. You triage it, get the right contractor out and keep tenants informed.
• Compliance. Fire safety statements and essential safety measures, work health and safety, asbestos registers, emergency plans and evacuation drills. This is non-negotiable and a big part of the job.
• Contractor management. Tendering and managing cleaning, security, maintenance and trade contracts, and holding suppliers to their service levels.
• Budgets and reporting. Preparing operating budgets, tracking spend and reporting to owners or clients.
• Capital works and projects. Fit-outs, plant replacements, upgrades and sustainability projects.
• Tenant relationships. Keeping occupants happy, often the real measure of success.

The skills employers ask for most, according to SEEK, are facilities management, contractor management, preventive maintenance, building services, workplace health and safety, building management, capital works and fire safety.

The tech side is getting exciting

This is where I get enthusiastic. Modern buildings run on building management systems, sensors and data. FMs increasingly use dashboards to track energy use, predict equipment failures and improve sustainability ratings like NABERS, which tenants and investors now care about a lot.

Then there are data centres. Australia is building enormous ones to power the AI boom, and every one needs facilities and critical-environment teams keeping power and cooling running 24/7. Airports, hospitals and defence sites have the same kind of mission-critical needs. If you like technology, FM is a great way into it.

AI tools such as Grok Bot, Claude or ChatGPT can help too, for drafting scopes of work or summarising contractor reports. Just check the details yourself, especially on compliance.

Licensing and qualifications

Good news: there's no specific licence to work as a facilities manager in Australia or New Zealand. SEEK notes FM roles don't typically require formal qualifications, though a relevant one helps, especially with larger organisations. One caveat: if your role crosses into leasing, collecting rent or acting as an agent for an owner, check whether your state's real estate licensing rules apply.

The qualifications worth knowing about:

• Australia: the nationally recognised 11477NAT Diploma of Facilities Management, which became current in April 2026 and replaces the old 10938NAT diploma. It's developed by the Facility Management Association of Australia (FMA) and covers building systems, maintenance planning, compliance, procurement, contracts and sustainability.
• New Zealand: the government careers site Tahatū says most people learn on the job, with a Diploma or Graduate Diploma in Facilities Management, or a degree in business, building and construction or a related field, useful extras. It also suggests joining the Facilities Management Association of New Zealand.
• Helpful backgrounds: trades (especially electrical, mechanical or refrigeration), engineering, construction management, property management, hospitality operations and the Defence Force all transfer brilliantly.

What do facilities managers earn?

Pay varies a lot with the size and complexity of the portfolio, the sector and the city. Here's what live SEEK ads in October 2026 show:

• Facilities manager roles in Melbourne advertised at $90,000 to $100,000 (CHP Management, Hawthorn), $100,000 to $120,000 (Forum Recruitment), $120,000 to $150,000 (Sentry Recruitment) and $135,000 to $150,000 (Network Pacific Real Estate).
• On SEEK's national facilities manager listings: a retail FM on the Central Coast at $105,000 to $115,000 plus super, travel allowance and bonus (Handler Property Group); Waverley Council in Sydney at $128,196 to $147,426 plus super; and an industrial FM in Wetherill Park at $150,000 to $165,000 plus super.
• Senior roles go higher. Airservices Australia is advertising senior facility manager roles in Melbourne and Brisbane from $152,775 plus 14% super, and Sodexo has a Brisbane multi-site facilities operations manager role at $170,000 to $180,000.
• In New Zealand, Tahatū puts facilities manager pay at $60,000 to $103,000 for most people, with an upper range of around $133,000 (NZD).

Career path

1. Facilities coordinator. Logging jobs, chasing contractors, keeping compliance records.
2. Assistant facilities manager. Supporting an FM across a building or portfolio.
3. Facilities manager. Your own site or portfolio.
4. Senior FM or portfolio FM. Larger, premium or mission-critical assets.
5. Head of facilities, operations director or asset manager. Many FMs move into asset management, development or workplace strategy later on.

How to get started

• Apply for coordinator roles with big FM providers and commercial agencies. They train people up all the time.
• Leverage a trade background. If you're an electrician or HVAC tech wanting to get off the tools, FM is a natural next step.
• Start the Diploma of Facilities Management part-time while you work.
• Join FMA or FMANZ for training and networking.

I honestly think facilities management is one of the smartest moves in property right now. Buildings are getting more complex, sustainability matters more than ever, and the AI data centre boom is creating a whole new class of critical facilities. If you like solving problems and keeping things running, you'll never be bored.

Ready to find your next role? Browse facilities and property jobs across Australia and New Zealand and take the first step today.

By Brett Iredale