Maintenance & Reliability Engineer II

Your Responsibilities

The Maintenance & Reliability Engineer II applies engineering principles, equipment and maintenance data, structured problem-solving, and reliability methods to improve the availability, maintainability, and useful life of manufacturing and facility assets. The role is focused on preventing failures, reducing repeat breakdowns, improving preventive-maintenance effectiveness, and helping the site obtain reliable performance from existing equipment and maintenance resources.

The engineer works closely with Maintenance, Operations, Equipment Engineering, Process Engineering, Facilities, Quality, EHS, Automation, and other plant functions. This is a hands-on plant engineering role requiring regular floor presence, direct collaboration with maintenance technicians and production employees, and the ability to independently carry assigned reliability investigations and improvement projects from problem definition through implementation and effectiveness verification.

Salary:

Fuchs offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience in a similar position. The salary range for this position is $90,000 to $99,000 per year, but actual salary will vary depending upon a new hire’s experience and qualifications as well as internal equity.

Equipment Reliability & Preventive Maintenance

• Analyze CMMS data, work-order history, downtime, repeat failures, equipment-performance trends, and maintenance costs to identify recurring problems, reliability risks, and improvement opportunities.

• Establish, implement, and sustain a Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) system aligned with applicable ISO management-system requirements and site reliability goals by engaging Production Technicians, Maintenance, and Engineering personnel in the development, execution, and continuous improvement of TPM activities and standards.

• Support prioritization of maintenance work orders and backlog based on equipment criticality, safety and quality risk, production impact, failure history, asset condition, and available maintenance resources.

• Perform equipment criticality and failure-mode reviews and use the results to help prioritize preventive-maintenance strategies, engineering work, inspections, spare parts, and lifecycle needs.

• Review and improve preventive-maintenance tasks, frequencies, job content, and condition-based maintenance activities using equipment history, failure modes, operating conditions, risk, and demonstrated effectiveness.

• Lead assigned root-cause investigations using practical methods such as 5 Why, fishbone analysis, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), fault-tree analysis, and equipment-performance data.

• Develop and implement practical engineered corrective actions, including component upgrades, equipment modifications, control changes, installation improvements, operating-limit changes, and maintenance-strategy changes.

• Track and analyze reliability measures such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), equipment availability, repeat failures, preventive-maintenance compliance, planned-versus-reactive work, backlog health, and maintenance cost.

• Support equipment lifecycle and obsolescence planning by using condition, failure history, maintenance cost, lead time, and business risk to develop technically justified recommendations for continued repair, modification, refurbishment, or replacement.

Condition Monitoring & Predictive Maintenance

• Evaluate and apply appropriate condition-monitoring methods such as vibration, temperature, thermography, ultrasound, electrical-current monitoring, oil analysis, and other equipment-health indicators where they provide practical value.

• Develop and use equipment-health trends, alert thresholds, dashboards, and monitoring approaches based on available maintenance, process, sensor, and operating data; verify findings against actual equipment condition.

• Support evaluation and implementation of IIoT sensors, predictive-maintenance platforms, anomaly-detection tools, AI-enabled analytics, and vendor technologies where they can improve equipment reliability or maintenance decisions.

• Translate condition-monitoring and predictive findings into prioritized inspections, planned work orders, engineered improvements, and measurable follow-up actions within the maintenance workflow.

Maintenance & Cross-Functional Support

• Serve as a technical engineering resource and technical lead for Maintenance Technicians during complex troubleshooting, equipment repairs, recurring failures, major maintenance activities, and reliability improvements. Provide engineering direction and technical support while working collaboratively with experienced maintenance personnel.

• Develop technical scopes, engineering specifications, equipment or sensor requirements, acceptance criteria, drawings, procedures, and commissioning documentation for assigned reliability improvements and equipment modifications.

• Develop spare-parts strategies, maintain technical documentation and equipment records, and support equipment lifecycle planning to maximize asset performance, maintainability, and reliability.

• Provide technical support to Maintenance Technicians in identifying, specifying, quoting, and purchasing equipment parts required for repairs and inventory, including evaluating and specifying suitable replacement components when original parts are obsolete or no longer available.

• Support equipment installations, modifications, capital projects, commissioning, qualification, design reviews, maintainability reviews, startup, and management-of-change activities, with emphasis on long-term reliability and maintainability.

• Provide engineering input for complex maintenance job plans, shutdowns, equipment overhauls, contractor activities, and recurring breakdown issues so lessons learned are incorporated into future work and preventive strategies.

• Identify practical, cost-effective reliability improvements and develop the technical basis for larger equipment repair, refurbishment, or capital-replacement needs when required.

• Ensure assigned reliability and equipment improvements comply with applicable safety, quality, environmental, change-control, CAPA, qualification, cybersecurity, and ISO management-system requirements.

• Communicate equipment risks, reliability findings, technical recommendations, and improvement results clearly, and support maintenance technicians and plant users in applying revised maintenance practices and reliability tools.

Qualifications We Are Looking For:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline is required. Relevant work experience does not substitute for the engineering degree requirement.

• At least three years of relevant Engineering experience supporting industrial equipment, maintenance and reliability, manufacturing, utilities, facilities, or plant engineering in an operating plant environment; five or more years is preferred. Experience may include engineering-focused maintenance leadership or supervision when combined with the required engineering degree.

• Demonstrated ability to apply engineering fundamentals, quantitative analysis, equipment and maintenance data, and structured problem-solving to complex equipment problems; evaluate failure mechanisms and technical alternatives; and develop technically justified recommendations for maintenance, repair, modification, or replacement. Must be able to work directly with maintenance technicians, operators, contractors, and production teams to implement solutions.

• Experience using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and equipment or maintenance data to identify recurring problems, improve maintenance strategies, prioritize work, and support engineering decisions.

• Working knowledge of preventive and predictive maintenance, root-cause analysis, equipment criticality, failure-mode analysis, lifecycle planning, and reliability measures.

• Ability to collect, organize, and analyze equipment and maintenance data; recognize patterns and failure trends; evaluate alternatives using sound engineering judgment; and translate findings into practical engineering recommendations. Must also be able to read and interpret mechanical drawings, Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs), electrical schematics, manuals, and technical specifications.

• Strong communication and coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple plant priorities, work effectively with experienced maintenance personnel, and independently drive assigned reliability improvements through completion.

Preferred Qualifications:

Demonstrated experience applying reliability-engineering principles in an industrial or manufacturing environment is preferred, including equipment reliability, instrumentation, utilities, and facility systems; vibration analysis, thermography, ultrasound, oil analysis, or other condition-monitoring technologies; CMMS improvement; equipment data analysis and visualization; IIoT sensors or AI-enabled predictive tools; capital projects; commissioning; qualification; CAPA; or ISO-based management systems.

Experience with equipment criticality assessment, failure-mode analysis, root-cause analysis, preventive and predictive maintenance optimization, lifecycle planning, maintenance strategy development, and reliability metrics is also preferred.

CMRP, CRL, PE licensure, predictive-maintenance certification, or another relevant engineering or reliability credential is also valued.

These Are Your Benefits:

FUCHS offers an excellent compensation package and comprehensive benefits, along with opportunities to expand your experience and develop professionally in a global organization.

FUCHS Lubricants Co. is an equal employment opportunity (EEO)/AA employer and strongly supports diversity in the workplace (m/f/d/v).