Who keeps the robots running, and what they earn: $64,520

There are two different jobs behind 'the person who works on robots,' and they get confused. The narrow title Robotics Technician (a detailed O*NET code inside a mechatronics occupation) has a higher median, about $73,900, but is a small line projected to grow at about the average rate. Industrial Machinery Mechanics, at $64,520, is a far larger occupation, 446,900 strong, growing much faster than average, and on our reading it is where most day-to-day robot and machinery maintenance actually sits. O*NET gives the wages, headcount and growth for the occupation but does not describe who maintains robots, so treat that last part as our characterisation rather than a sourced claim.

So a single 'robot maintenance salary' is misleading without saying which occupation you mean. The mechatronics-linked robotics-technician figure describes a specialized role; the industrial-machinery-mechanic figure describes the broad maintenance workforce that keeps automated lines running. They pay differently and grow differently.

The outlook is the sharper contrast. Robotics technician is projected to grow at about the average rate, while industrial machinery mechanics is projected to grow much faster than average, with about 44,400 openings a year. If the question is where the jobs are, it is the broad maintenance occupation, not the narrow title.

Cite the maintenance wage as the median for Industrial Machinery Mechanics, $64,520 a year in 2025, and say it is the broad occupation that does most robot maintenance.

Distinguish it from the robotics-technician figure ($73,900), which is a smaller, specialized line growing at about the average rate. Name which occupation you mean.

For the outlook, use industrial machinery mechanics: 446,900 employed, about 44,400 openings a year, growing much faster than average.

Quoting one 'robot maintenance salary' without saying which occupation. Robotics technician and industrial machinery mechanic are different jobs with different pay and growth.

Assuming the higher robotics-technician figure describes the maintenance workforce. It is a small specialized line; most maintenance sits in the larger machinery-mechanic occupation.

Assuming all robot-related jobs grow at one pace. The narrow robotics-technician title is projected to grow at about the average rate, while the broad maintenance occupation is projected to grow much faster than average.

The figures trace to the O*NET summary for Industrial Machinery Mechanics, which republishes Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage and employment data and 2025 to 2035 projections. We fetched the page and confirmed the wage, employment, openings, and growth in its text.

We cite O*NET because it reports industrial machinery mechanics on their own. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook groups them with machinery maintenance workers and millwrights into one larger line, which is the subject of our separate page on that broader occupation. An earlier version of this page said the Handbook entry blocked our citation checker. It does not: we had tested a mistyped address, and bls.gov answers addresses that do not exist with a 403.

We pair this occupation with the robotics-technician line deliberately, because the two are routinely conflated and they answer different questions about robot maintenance pay and outlook.

O*NET's openings heading, "Projected job openings (2025-2035)", reads like a ten-year total, but the figures are annual averages. The robotics-technician line shows it directly: O*NET lists 1,400 under that heading, and the BLS Handbook gives the same 1,400 as openings projected each year, on average, over the decade. We read the 44,400 for industrial machinery mechanics the same way.

Refreshed in October 2026 for the 2025 to 2035 projections. The previous version reported 439,600 employed and about 45,700 openings a year from the 2024 to 2034 projections.