Maintenance Reliability Engineer

Maintenance Reliability EngineerAre you a Mechanical Engineer who enjoys getting out from behind the desk, troubleshooting equipment, and solving reliability challenges where your work has a direct impact on plant performance?Mitsubishi Chemical America is looking for a Maintenance Reliability Engineer to join our Soarnol team in La Porte, Texas. This is an opportunity to take ownership of equipment reliability while working closely with Maintenance, Operations, and Engineering in a hands-on chemical manufacturing environment.This role is ideal for an engineer who combines strong mechanical fundamentals with practical field experience. You'll spend approximately 50% of your time focused on reliability initiatives, 30–40% supporting equipment and troubleshooting in the field, and the remainder supporting reliability and capital projects.What You'll DoAs a key mechanical and reliability resource for the site, you will:Troubleshoot mechanical equipment issues alongside Maintenance and Operations, providing second-level technical support when problems require engineering expertise.Improve the reliability and performance of both rotating and stationary equipment, including pumps, mechanical seals, bearings, blowers, piping, valves, tanks, and pressure vessels.Investigate recurring equipment failures and develop practical, sustainable solutions that improve equipment performance and reduce downtime.Apply maintenance and reliability best practices, including Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), FMEA, and asset criticality principles.Support mechanical systems and reliability-related Management of Change (MOC) activities.Partner with the Engineering team on capital projects to ensure maintenance and reliability requirements are incorporated into equipment design and installation.Develop concepts and technical documentation for maintenance-related equipment repairs, replacements, and improvements.Support equipment checkout, commissioning, and start-up activities.Participate in Process Hazard Analyses, safety audits, and incident investigations as needed.Maintain equipment documentation, engineering files, procedures, specifications, and drawings to support long-term mechanical integrity.What We're Looking ForBachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering5+ years of mechanical engineering experience in a chemical plant environmentStrong hands-on experience maintaining, troubleshooting, repairing, overhauling, or installing rotating machinery and stationary equipmentWorking knowledge of pumps, mechanical seals, bearings, piping, valves, tanks, and pressure vesselsKnowledge of maintenance and reliability best practicesUnderstanding of Process Safety Management (PSM), particularly as it relates to mechanical and asset integrityExperience with reliability methodologies such as RCM, FMEA, asset criticality, or root cause analysisAbility to work effectively across Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, and SHE teamsPreferred QualificationsCertified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP) or Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE)Root Cause Failure Analysis trainingExperience with centrifugal and positive displacement pumpsExperience supporting mechanical reliability improvements within a PSM-covered chemical or process manufacturing facilityWhy This Role?This isn't a reliability position where you'll spend all day analyzing data from behind a desk. You'll have the opportunity to be visible in the plant, work directly with the equipment, partner with experienced maintenance professionals, and solve real mechanical reliability challenges.If you're a Mechanical Engineer who enjoys understanding why equipment fails—and figuring out how to keep it from happening again—we'd love to hear from you.The salary range for this position is $130,000–$140,000. Factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, job-related skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and business considerations may influence base pay offered. This salary may also be subject to geographic adjustment if authorization is granted to work outside of the posted location.