Director of Maintenance

Director Of Plant Engineering And Maintenance

The Director of Plant Engineering and Maintenance provides strategic and operational leadership for plant engineering, facilities, maintenance, utilities, and capital-project execution. This position is accountable for safe, reliable, and cost-effective equipment and infrastructure; improved plant uptime and manufacturing capability; development of engineering and skilled-trades personnel; and delivery of capital projects that support safety, quality, delivery, cost, customer, and growth objectives.

Essential Functions:

1. Provide leadership for plant engineering, facilities, maintenance, utilities, equipment reliability, and technical support activities.
2. Establish and execute maintenance and reliability strategies that improve safety, equipment availability, plant uptime, and lifecycle cost.
3. Set targets and review performance for preventive and predictive maintenance compliance, downtime, mean time between failures, mean time to repair, overall equipment effectiveness, maintenance cost, and schedule attainment.
4. Ensure recurring equipment failures are addressed through disciplined root-cause analysis, corrective action, and verification of effectiveness.
5. Develop and maintain critical-equipment, spare-parts, obsolescence, and business-continuity plans that reduce operational risk.
6. Lead annual capital-expenditure planning, project prioritization, budget development, forecasting, and approval recommendations aligned with business objectives.
7. Direct equipment specifications, supplier technical evaluations, procurement support, installation, commissioning, capability validation, and final acceptance of capital equipment.
8. Manage capital-project scope, schedule, cost, risk, and return-on-investment commitments; communicate status and corrective actions to executive leadership.
9. Ensure facilities, utilities, equipment, and engineering activities comply with applicable safety, environmental, regulatory, customer, and company requirements.
10. Partner with Production, Quality, Safety, Purchasing, Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, customers, and suppliers to support launches, capacity needs, operational readiness, and continuous improvement.
11. Build organizational capability through workforce planning, succession planning, technical training, performance management, and development of engineering and skilled-trades personnel.
12. Allocate personnel, contractors, and technical resources to meet plant priorities, customer requirements, planned shutdowns, and emergency-response needs.
13. Standardize engineering and maintenance systems, documentation, project controls, and work practices to improve execution and knowledge retention.
14. Promote lean manufacturing, data-based decision-making, energy efficiency, automation, and cost-reduction initiatives that improve operational performance.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Strategic planning and disciplined execution.
2. Sound financial judgment and capital stewardship.
3. Team development, coaching, succession planning, and accountability.
4. Cross-functional leadership and effective customer and supplier communication.
5. Urgency, structured problem-solving, and fact-based decision-making.
6. Ability to manage competing priorities independently and through teams.
7. Performs other duties as required.

Education and Experience:

1. Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field required; equivalent combinations of education and progressively responsible technical leadership experience may be considered.
2. Eight (8) to ten (10) years of progressive plant engineering, maintenance, reliability, facilities, or capital-project experience in a manufacturing environment, including leadership of managers, engineers, or skilled-trades teams.
3. Automotive manufacturing experience strongly preferred, with working knowledge of IATF 16949, ISO 14001, customer-specific requirements, launch readiness, and disciplined problem-solving.
4. Demonstrated experience with preventive, predictive, and condition-based maintenance; root-cause analysis; equipment reliability; spare-parts strategy; and maintenance performance metrics.
5. Demonstrated experience developing and executing capital plans and managing equipment projects from business case and specification through installation, commissioning, validation, and acceptance.
6. Working knowledge of relevant manufacturing processes, automation, controls, robotics, tooling, utilities, and facility systems; experience with core manufacturing processes preferred.
7. Proficiency with computerized maintenance management systems, project-management software, Microsoft Excel, data analysis, and reporting tools; CAD familiarity preferred.
8. Knowledge of lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, risk assessment, contractor management, and applicable safety and environmental requirements.
9. Demonstrated written, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with executives, employees, customers, and suppliers.
10. Ability to manage multiple priorities, respond to urgent plant needs, and work outside normal business hours when operational support requires it.