Biomedical Technician

A biomedical technician works in a hospital biomedical engineering department, or for a company that services medical devices. The job is to keep clinical equipment safe, calibrated and available. That means scheduled servicing, electrical safety testing, fault finding and repair, and keeping the asset record straight so a ward can prove a device was checked. Most of the day is spent with the equipment and the people using it. A nurse reports a pump alarming, you triage it, swap it out, and work out whether it is a fault, a battery or a setting. Bigger work goes to the bench, or back to the manufacturer. Hospitals manage this equipment under an Australian standard for medical equipment management, so the paperwork matters as much as the repair: a device with no traceable service record cannot be used on a patient. One caveat on the data. The ABS files this work inside Engineering Technicians nec, a residual technician category, so any employment, pay or outlook figure on this page belongs to that wider group rather than to biomedical work.

Work the planned maintenance list for the week, pulling devices from wards on a schedule the unit has agreed. Run electrical safety and performance tests, record the readings, and tag each device with its next due date. Diagnose faults reported by clinical staff, repair what is repairable, and escalate the rest to the manufacturer under warranty or contract. Keep the asset register current: serial numbers, locations, service history and end of life dates. Check new equipment on delivery, set it up, and test it before it goes into clinical use. Show nurses and other staff how a device is meant to be used, and log the training. Manage loan and spare equipment so a ward is never left short. Keep parts, batteries and test gear stocked and calibrated.

The usual entry point is a Diploma or Advanced Diploma in electronics, biomedical engineering or instrumentation, and the ABS files this category at skill level 2, which matches that. Some technicians come across from electronics, defence or instrument trades. Hospitals will normally ask for a police check and immunisation records, because you work in clinical areas. Study is often two to three years part time while working. Course cost and job outcomes vary by provider and by state, so check the current options at dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe and yourcareer.gov.au, and ask a hospital biomedical department what it hires on before you enrol.

You support clinical staff during other people's worst moments, and a device you signed off can end up in a serious incident review. That responsibility is real and it does not lift. Departments are small, so there may be one job in a hospital and a long wait for it to open. On call and after hours work is common. Manufacturers are locking more diagnostics behind their own software and service contracts, and that could narrow what an in house technician is allowed to repair over time.

The jobs are where the beds are. Device manufacturers and service companies hire as well, usually near the capital cities. The job is on site, because the equipment is.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 3129, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Attention to Detailcore
• Data Entry and Accuracycore
• Digital Literacycore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Problem Solvingcore
• Process Documentationcore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Report Writingcore
• Risk Identificationcore
• Stakeholder Communicationcore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Managementcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Adjust engineering designs
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracy
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Incident Reporting
• Microsoft Office Suite Proficiency
• Process Improvement Identification
• Record Management
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Research and Analysis
• Workload Self-Management

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

Last updated: 30 October 2026