Maintenance Reliability Engineer

Reliability Engineer

The Reliability Engineer is responsible for developing, implementing, and continuously improving asset reliability strategies across Texas International Terminals. This role is accountable for improving equipment availability, reducing repeat failures, optimizing preventive and predictive maintenance, and ensuring maintenance strategies are technically sound, risk-based, and aligned with the operating context of TXIT assets. The position uses equipment history, condition data, failure analysis, OEM requirements, and field observations to drive measurable improvements in asset performance and lifecycle cost.

The Reliability Engineer serves as the technical owner for reliability strategy, failure elimination, PM/PdM optimization, asset criticality, equipment strategy development, and reliability performance. The role works closely with Maintenance Superintendents, Planning & Scheduling, Mechanical and I&E SMEs, the Chief Inspector/API function, Operations, Warehouse, Projects, and Engineering to ensure reliability requirements are translated into executable work within FIIX and sustained through standard processes.

The position focuses heavily on proactive failure prevention, field engagement, equipment strategy development, root cause analysis, condition monitoring, precision maintenance, critical spares, CMMS data quality, and continuous improvement initiatives that increase uptime, reduce emergency work, and extend asset life.

Core Values: Model and reinforce company values in all decisions and actions, ensuring safety, integrity, reliability, quality, and excellence remain central to reliability engineering activities. Demonstrate strong Safety and Environmental Stewardship by ensuring reliability strategies support safe operation and regulatory compliance. Exhibit Quality Focus through Continuous Improvement and Precision Maintenance by challenging assumptions, using data, and applying disciplined engineering practices. Uphold Integrity and Accountability through transparent technical decisions and ownership of reliability outcomes. Foster Care for Customers, Coworkers, and Community by improving the reliability of systems that support safe and dependable terminal operations.

Reliability Strategy and Failure Prevention: Develop and maintain equipment reliability strategies based on asset criticality, credible failure modes, operating context, OEM recommendations, equipment history, condition-monitoring data, and business consequence. Determine the appropriate strategy for each failure mode, including Safety & Compliance PM, Equipment Reliability PM, predictive/condition-based maintenance, operator rounds, failure-finding tasks, run-to-failure, or equipment redesign. Use RCM and FMEA/FMECA principles where appropriate and ensure strategies clearly define what can fail, how the failure can be detected or prevented, and what action is required.

Daily and Weekly Field & Reliability Oversight: Maintain a consistent field presence across TXIT operating areas. Review significant failures, repeat defects, PM/PdM findings, and emerging equipment risks. Conduct equipment walkdowns, observe equipment in operation, participate in troubleshooting, and engage technicians and operators to validate that maintenance strategies reflect actual field conditions. Weekly, review bad actors, open RCA actions, condition-monitoring findings, critical spare gaps, and reliability improvement priorities.

Performance Optimization: Monitor asset reliability and maintenance performance with focus on improving availability, MTBF, PM effectiveness, PdM effectiveness, corrective finding closure, emergency work, repeat failures, and lifecycle cost. Use Pareto analysis, failure history, condition data, and work-order trends to identify bad actors and prioritize reliability improvement efforts. Verify that implemented actions deliver sustained improvement rather than temporary restoration.

Safety, Environmental and Regulatory Alignment: Ensure reliability strategies support applicable OSHA, EPA, TCEQ, Coast Guard, PSM, manufacturer, and site requirements. Coordinate with the Chief Inspector/API function on fixed-equipment mechanical integrity and inspection requirements while maintaining clear role boundaries. Participate in MOC reviews where changes to service, process conditions, equipment design, materials, lubrication, loading, or operating envelope could affect equipment reliability.

Continuous Improvement and Cost Savings: Identify, prioritize, and implement reliability improvements that reduce failures, downtime, emergency work, maintenance cost, and lifecycle risk. Optimize PM/PdM tasks and frequencies, improve precision maintenance standards, identify opportunities for component standardization, and support repair-versus-replace decisions. Ensure improvements are embedded in FIIX, procedures, training, equipment standards, and operating practices so benefits are sustained.

Technical Capability and Knowledge Transfer: Build reliability capability across Maintenance and Operations by developing equipment standards, explaining failure modes, supporting troubleshooting, training personnel on new or revised maintenance strategies, and capturing SME knowledge in procedures and checklists. Reliability knowledge shall be institutionalized within systems and processes rather than dependent on individual knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain reliability strategies for TXIT assets using asset criticality, failure modes, operating context, OEM requirements, equipment history, condition data, safety/environmental consequence, operational impact, and lifecycle cost.
• Lead development and optimization of preventive, predictive, condition-based, failure-finding, operator-round, and run-to-failure strategies using RCM and FMEA/FMECA principles where appropriate.
• Own the technical effectiveness of the PM program by reviewing PM history, task content, frequencies, acceptance criteria, OEM recommendations, findings, and resulting corrective work.
• Develop and govern predictive and condition-monitoring programs including vibration analysis, infrared thermography, oil analysis, ultrasound, motor/electrical testing, lubrication condition monitoring, wear measurement, alignment verification, and performance trending as applicable.
• Lead or facilitate root-cause investigations for significant failures, repeat failures, high-cost failures, production-impacting events, and chronic equipment problems; ensure corrective actions address physical, human, and systemic causes.
• Develop and maintain a formal Bad Actor process using downtime, failure frequency, maintenance cost, operational consequence, and work-order history to prioritize reliability improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with Maintenance Superintendents, Planning & Scheduling, Operations, Mechanical and I&E SMEs, Inspection, Warehouse, Projects, Engineering, Safety, and Environmental teams to align reliability priorities with operational requirements.
• Support asset hierarchy development, parent-child relationships, equipment class assignment, and criticality assessments within FIIX to ensure maintenance strategies are applied consistently and resources are prioritized according to risk.
• Maintain a high level of reliability data accuracy and integrity within FIIX, including asset records, failure coding, PM/PdM strategies, equipment history, corrective findings, and supporting technical documentation.
• Ensure significant PM, PdM, inspection, and field findings are converted into corrective work orders and tracked through repair, closeout, and post-repair verification.
• Partner with Warehouse and Procurement to identify critical spares, develop equipment BOMs, evaluate long-lead and obsolete components, improve material readiness, and recommend appropriate stocking strategies.
• Establish and promote precision maintenance standards including shaft and belt alignment, lubrication, bearing installation, torque control, balancing, pipe strain control, electrical termination quality, equipment installation, commissioning, and baseline measurements.
• Participate in Management of Change reviews to evaluate reliability impacts associated with changes in equipment service, process conditions, materials, lubrication, loading, operating envelope, inspection requirements, spare parts, procedures, and training.
• Support project commissioning and maintenance handover by ensuring new or modified equipment has an established asset hierarchy, criticality, PM/PdM strategy, OEM documentation, critical spares, BOMs, lubrication requirements, baseline condition data, and training requirements.
• Analyze equipment lifecycle cost and reliability risk to support repair-versus-replace, redesign, upgrade, standardization, and capital investment recommendations.
• Conduct regular field walkdowns and equipment reviews to validate equipment condition, maintenance quality, operating context, and the effectiveness of reliability strategies.
• Develop technical training and knowledge-transfer activities that strengthen troubleshooting, precision maintenance, condition monitoring, and understanding of equipment failure modes.
• Maintain reliability procedures, equipment-class standards, PM/PdM technical content, RCA documentation, strategy records, and supporting technical documentation.
• Support capital projects, equipment upgrades, system modifications, and asset replacement initiatives by providing reliability engineering input throughout design, commissioning, and handover.
• Provide technical support during significant equipment failures and operational disruptions, ensuring appropriate troubleshooting, escalation, failure documentation, and follow-up analysis.
• Provide accurate, timely, and actionable reliability performance reports, bad actor reviews, RCA status, equipment risk assessments, and improvement recommendations to Maintenance & Reliability leadership.
• Leverage FIIX, condition-monitoring technologies, data-analysis tools, and other reliability systems to improve failure analysis, maintenance strategy development, reporting efficiency, and decision-making while ensuring proper validation and governance.
• Track and analyze key KPIs, including:
  • Critical assets with defined maintenance strategy
  • PM compliance and PM effectiveness
  • PdM findings and corrective finding closure rate
  • MTBF, MTTR, repeat failures, equipment downtime, and bad actors
  • Emergency work and planned vs. unplanned maintenance
  • Assets with assigned criticality, hierarchy, and equipment class
  • Critical spare coverage and OEM maintenance requirement coverage

Expectations

• Demonstrate a high level of ownership, accountability, professionalism, technical integrity, and ethical behavior in all reliability engineering activities.
• Maintain strong alignment with applicable safety, environmental, regulatory, engineering, and manufacturer requirements when developing or modifying maintenance strategies.
• Drive measurable improvement in equipment reliability, availability, MTBF, PM/PdM effectiveness, repeat failure reduction, and emergency work reduction.
• Maintain a visible field presence and routinely engage technicians, operators, supervisors, and SMEs to understand how equipment operates, degrades, and fails.
• Meet established reliability, RCA, reporting, strategy-development, CMMS, project-support, and improvement deadlines consistently.
• Challenge repeat failures and unexplained equipment conditions; do not accept restoration of function as the end of the reliability process when recurrence risk remains.
• Exhibit strong analytical, communication, facilitation, and decision-making skills while building credibility across Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, Inspection, and leadership.
• Take initiative to identify opportunities for failure elimination, PM optimization, predictive maintenance, precision maintenance, cost reduction, and lifecycle improvement.
• Maintain strong attention to detail and organizational discipline while managing multiple reliability priorities in a fast-paced terminal environment.
• Foster a culture emphasizing safety, reliability ownership, precision maintenance, evidence-based decision-making, continuous improvement, and learning from failures.
• Act as a positive representative of the Maintenance & Reliability organization by promoting collaboration, professionalism, technical rigor, and alignment with TXIT operational goals.
• Serve as a subject-matter resource for reliability strategy, PM/PdM optimization, root cause analysis, asset criticality, failure elimination, and reliability performance.
• Adhere to established escalation protocols, MOC requirements, engineering governance, reporting requirements, and decision-making authority.

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Reliability, Industrial, or related Engineering discipline preferred; equivalent combination of technical education and relevant reliability experience may be considered.
• 5-10 years of experience in reliability engineering, maintenance engineering, industrial maintenance, or asset management within a heavy industrial, terminal, petrochemical, refining, marine, or material-handling environment preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of reliability-centered maintenance, FMEA/FMECA, root cause analysis, PM optimization, asset criticality, bad actor management, and condition-based maintenance principles.
• Demonstrated experience with rotating equipment, pumps, motors, bearings, gearboxes, mechanical power transmission, conveyors/material handling equipment, and supporting industrial systems.
• Experience developing and optimizing preventive, predictive, and condition-based maintenance programs in a heavy industrial or terminal environment.

• Working knowledge of applicable OSHA, EPA, TCEQ, Coast Guard, PSM, engineering, and manufacturer requirements relevant to terminal maintenance and reliability activities.

• Experience with CMMS systems, preferably FIIX, including asset hierarchy, equipment classes, criticality, PM development, failure coding, work-order history, and maintenance data analysis.
• Strong analytical, organizational, facilitation, technical writing, and problem-solving skills.
• Preferred certifications or development areas include CMRP, CRL, vibration analysis, machinery lubrication, RCA facilitation, and RCM/FMEA facilitation.
• Ability to manage sensitive operational, maintenance, reliability, and engineering information professionally and confidentially.

Physical Demands

• Ability to walk, stand, climb, and work throughout industrial terminal environments on a regular basis.
• Frequent exposure to outdoor terminal conditions including heat, humidity, dust, noise, vibration, marine conditions, and changing weather.
• Ability to access equipment areas, stairs, platforms, docks, warehouses, rail areas, and other operating locations as required to perform field reliability assessments.
• Ability to work flexible hours and provide technical support during significant equipment failures, outages, turnarounds, and operational requirements as needed.