Maintenance & Reliability Manager – Plant Engineering

Key Responsibilities: Lead initiatives to improve plant maintenance, equipment reliability, uptime, and overall equipment performance Evaluate existing maintenance practices and implement improvements to create a more proactive, preventive, and predictive maintenance culture Strengthen PM/PdM, TPM, CMMS, work-order, maintenance planning, and scheduling processes Analyze downtime, equipment failures, OEE, MTTR/MTBF, maintenance data, and recurring issues to identify improvement opportunities Lead root-cause analysis and implement sustainable corrective actions for chronic equipment problems Partner with maintenance leadership and technicians to improve troubleshooting, technical capabilities, accountability, and execution Support the development, coaching, and performance of maintenance personnel Provide technical leadership across mechanical, electrical, automation, PLC, controls, instrumentation, and facility systems Partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Safety, Quality, and plant leadership to improve equipment and production performance Identify and execute capital projects and equipment improvements that support reliability, safety, capacity, and operational efficiency Manage engineering projects including scope development, budgeting, vendor/contractor coordination, installation, commissioning, and startup Develop equipment specifications, scopes of work, maintenance standards, and technical documentation Support equipment installations, production-line improvements, facility upgrades, and automation projects Drive continuous improvement and change-management initiatives within the maintenance organization Ensure maintenance and engineering activities comply with applicable safety, food safety, environmental, and regulatory requirements Qualifications 8+ years of progressive maintenance, reliability, plant engineering, or manufacturing experience Demonstrated experience leading or significantly improving a manufacturing maintenance program Maintenance leadership experience with responsibility for technicians, supervisors, or other technical personnel Strong knowledge of preventive/predictive maintenance, TPM, CMMS, work-order systems, reliability practices, and root-cause analysis Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting knowledge, including exposure to PLCs, automation, controls, and instrumentation Experience using maintenance and reliability KPIs to reduce downtime and improve equipment performance Experience managing capital projects, equipment installations, vendors, contractors, budgets, and schedules Strong leadership and change-management skills with the ability to develop teams and improve maintenance culture Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience Preferred Background Food or beverage manufacturing experience strongly preferred Experience in high-speed, high-volume, or highly automated manufacturing environments Experience transforming a reactive maintenance organization into a more planned, preventive, and reliability-focused operation Experience with continuous improvement, Lean manufacturing, OEE, and equipment-performance initiatives Experience leading significant equipment installations, facility upgrades, automation projects, or production-line improvements What This Role Offers High-impact leadership role with visibility across plant operations Opportunity to directly influence the site's maintenance strategy and reliability culture Ownership of meaningful reliability, continuous-improvement, and capital initiatives Opportunity to develop maintenance systems and technical teams Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits Relocation assistance available