Operations Maintenance Supervisor - Whey & Proteins

Position Summary
Valley Queen is seeking a Maintenance Supervisor to lead maintenance operations in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment. This role is responsible for supervising maintenance technicians, ensuring equipment reliability, supporting plant operations, and driving continuous improvement initiatives. The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader with strong technical troubleshooting skills and experience managing maintenance teams.

Essential Functions

• Coach, train and provide direction to maintenance staff to ensure assigned work and projects are completed in an acceptable time frame while meeting the quality requirements of the department.
• Act in a leadership capacity for projects that are assigned.
• Perform maintenance related duties (mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic) to install and maintain food processing and production equipment.
• Identify root cause of plant and production equipment issues and put new programs and procedures in place to permanently address issues.
• Provide oversight to technicians doing planned, unplanned and preventive repairs of all plant equipment in a premier manner that achieves work order goals.
• Maintain equipment manuals, Emaint data and work orders so that the department has current and correct resources.
• Maintain 100 percent accuracy on all Emaint transactions.
• Ensure all controls calls are responded to in an appropriate timeframe.
• Maintain the corrective action database (CAD) to be current within 30 days.
• Maintain plant utility systems in a manner that does not cause any production downtime.
• Ensure technicians safely and properly operate plant utility systems (steam, air handling, ammonia, compressed air, electrical, water and sewer).
• Actively participate in and adhere to all PSM requirements.
• Actively participate as a member of the emergency response team.
• Comply with all company safety rules to achieve no injuries and no lost-time accidents.
• Maintain standard records pertaining to daily work requirements in a manner that makes them a reliable data source for safety, quality and regulatory requirements and audits.
• Understand and adhere to all GMPs and food safety policies and procedures and perform all work in a manner that ensures the highest standard of food safety and quality.
• Use tools, spare parts and supplies in a responsible manner yielding maximum profitability for VQ while maintaining equipment and facility to the highest possible standard.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Competencies

• Technical Capacity
• Problem Solving/Analysis
• Communication Proficiency
• Computer Skills
• Time Management/Initiative

Supervisory Responsibility
This position hires, provides guidance and direction and is responsible for the performance management of the maintenance team.

Work Environment
This job operates in an office, shop and plant environment. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to fumes or airborne particles, moving mechanical parts and vibration. Exposed to extreme temperature variations. The noise level in the work environment and job sites can be loud.

Physical Demands
Please refer to the separate functional job description for this position.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work
This is a full-time position. This position typically follows a Monday - Friday schedule which includes some weekend and holiday rotation. Hours with a Cheese Plant focus, typically 6:00 AM - 3:30 PM. Hours with a Whey Plant focus, typically 7:00 AM - 4:30 PM.

Travel
Less than five percent travel expected for this position.

Required Education, Experience & Certifications
Associate degree in related technical field or equivalent number of years of maintenance experience. Proficiency in basic computer skills.

Preferred Education , Experience & Certifications
Prefer three to five years of supervisory experience in a food manufacturing facility. Knowledge of ammonia refrigeration. Bilingual in English/Spanish.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications
Minimum age requirement is 18. Must possess or be able to obtain a valid and appropriate state driver's license prior to employment.

Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of responsibilities, duties or tasks that are required of the employee for this job. Responsibilities, duties and tasks may change at any time with or without notice.