Director, Engineering

Job Description

Job Description

Job Title: Director Of Engineering, Maintenance & Reliability Location: Memphis, TN Department: Operations Reports To: CEO / COO

Position Summary

Vanguard Soap is seeking a strategic, hands-on Director of Engineering, Maintenance & Reliability to lead the engineering, maintenance, and asset reliability functions across our industrial operations. This leader owns the performance, uptime, and longevity of the plant's equipment and facility infrastructure - maximizing asset reliability, minimizing unplanned downtime, and ensuring production capacity scales with rapid growth.

The role pairs deep reliability and process engineering expertise with strong maintenance leadership and disciplined capital project execution. The ideal candidate is a builder who can mature a reactive maintenance environment into a proactive, reliability-centered operation - implementing modern preventive and predictive maintenance systems, leading capital and automation projects, and developing a high-performing team of engineers, technicians, and planners.

Vanguard's manufacturing campus spans 14 acres and produces 40-50 million pounds of product annually with a team of more than 100 employees.

Key Responsibilities

ASSET RELIABILITY & MAINTENANCE EXCELLENCE

• Build and lead a world-class maintenance organization spanning preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance across all production lines.
• Implement and optimize a CMMS to drive PM compliance, work-order discipline, and data-driven maintenance decisions.
• Establish reliability programs - Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) - to eliminate recurring failures and chronic downtime.
• Drive measurable improvement in core reliability metrics, including OEE, MTBF, MTTR, and unplanned downtime.
• Own MRO and critical-spares strategy to balance equipment availability against inventory cost.

ENGINEERING & CAPITAL PROJECTS

• Lead process, project, and facilities engineering across all production lines and plant utilities.
• Own the full capital project lifecycle: justification, design, procurement, installation, commissioning, and startup.
• Evaluate and deploy automation, new equipment, and technology to expand capacity, efficiency, and reliability.
• Manage equipment specification, vendor selection, and contractor execution for plant and facility projects.
• Maintain facility infrastructure, utilities, and building systems to support safe, reliable operations.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT & OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

• Partner with Operations to improve line efficiency, throughput, and asset utilization.
• Apply Lean, Six Sigma, and TPM methodologies to reduce downtime, waste, and defects at the source.
• Develop engineering and maintenance standards, SOPs, and documentation to ensure repeatability.
• Use data and dashboards to prioritize improvement work and demonstrate ROI on reliability investments.

SAFETY, ENVIRONMENTAL & COMPLIANCE

• Champion a zero-incident safety culture across all engineering and maintenance activities.
• Ensure equipment and facility compliance with OSHA, EPA, and applicable environmental regulations.
• Own critical safety systems, including lockout/tagout, machine guarding, and contractor safety.
• Lead risk assessments, audits, and incident investigations with a prevention-first focus.
• Support GMP and FDA compliance for equipment, utilities, and facility infrastructure.

LEADERSHIP & TEAM DEVELOPMENT

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of engineers, maintenance technicians, planners, and supervisors.
• Build organizational capability and bench strength to scale with company growth.
• Own the engineering and maintenance budget, balancing cost, reliability, and capital priorities.
• Serve as a key member of the operations leadership team and contribute to overall business strategy.
• Drive accountability, performance management, and a culture of ownership.

KEY CAPABILITIES

• Reliability Leadership: Proven ability to mature maintenance from reactive to predictive and reliability centered.
• Engineering & Technical Acumen: Strong process, mechanical, and project engineering expertise.
• Capital Project Execution: Track record delivering capital and automation projects on time and on budget.
• Maintenance Systems: Hands-on CMMS implementation and data-driven maintenance management.
• Continuous Improvement: Deep Lean, Six Sigma, and TPM expertise applied to asset performance.
• People Leadership: Ability to attract, develop, and retain high-performing technical teams.
• Business Acumen: Connects reliability and capital decisions to cost, capacity, and P&L impact.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years of progressive engineering, maintenance, and/or reliability leadership in manufacturing.
• Prior experience as Director or Manager of Engineering, Maintenance, Reliability, or Plant Engineering.
• Demonstrated success implementing preventive/predictive maintenance and reliability programs.
• Hands-on experience with CMMS platforms and reliability metrics (OEE, MTBF, MTTR).
• Track record leading capital projects, automation, and equipment installations.
• Experience in personal care, chemical, CPG, food, or contract manufacturing strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Industrial, or Electrical) required.
• Preferred: Advanced degree (MBA or Master's in Engineering) and/or CMRP certification.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Strong knowledge of GMP, FDA, OSHA, and environmental regulatory standards.
• Experience supporting multi-shift maintenance coverage in a high-volume production environment.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, high-growth environment.