Maintenance & Reliability Manager - Plant Engineering

Position Summary

A well-established food manufacturing company is seeking a Maintenance & Reliability Manager – Plant Engineering to help strengthen maintenance systems, improve equipment reliability, and drive continuous improvement across a high-volume manufacturing operation.

This position is ideal for a hands-on maintenance and reliability leader who has experience improving maintenance programs, developing teams, reducing downtime, and creating a more proactive and reliable manufacturing environment .

While the position includes engineering and capital-project responsibilities, the primary focus is maintenance reliability, leadership, and long-term equipment performance rather than solely managing engineering projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives to improve plant maintenance, equipment reliability, uptime, and overall equipment performance
• Evaluate existing maintenance practices and implement improvements to create a more proactive, preventive, and predictive maintenance culture
• Strengthen PM/PdM, TPM, CMMS, work-order, maintenance planning, and scheduling processes
• Analyze downtime, equipment failures, OEE, MTTR/MTBF, maintenance data, and recurring issues to identify improvement opportunities
• Lead root-cause analysis and implement sustainable corrective actions for chronic equipment problems
• Partner with maintenance leadership and technicians to improve troubleshooting, technical capabilities, accountability, and execution
• Support the development, coaching, and performance of maintenance personnel
• Provide technical leadership across mechanical, electrical, automation, PLC, controls, instrumentation, and facility systems
• Partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Safety, Quality, and plant leadership to improve equipment and production performance
• Identify and execute capital projects and equipment improvements that support reliability, safety, capacity, and operational efficiency
• Manage engineering projects including scope development, budgeting, vendor/contractor coordination, installation, commissioning, and startup
• Develop equipment specifications, scopes of work, maintenance standards, and technical documentation
• Support equipment installations, production-line improvements, facility upgrades, and automation projects
• Drive continuous improvement and change-management initiatives within the maintenance organization
• Ensure maintenance and engineering activities comply with applicable safety, food safety, environmental, and regulatory requirements

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive maintenance, reliability, plant engineering, or manufacturing experience
• Demonstrated experience leading or significantly improving a manufacturing maintenance program
• Maintenance leadership experience with responsibility for technicians, supervisors, or other technical personnel
• Strong knowledge of preventive/predictive maintenance, TPM, CMMS, work-order systems, reliability practices, and root-cause analysis
• Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting knowledge, including exposure to PLCs, automation, controls, and instrumentation
• Experience using maintenance and reliability KPIs to reduce downtime and improve equipment performance
• Experience managing capital projects, equipment installations, vendors, contractors, budgets, and schedules
• Strong leadership and change-management skills with the ability to develop teams and improve maintenance culture
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience

Preferred Background

• Food or beverage manufacturing experience strongly preferred
• Experience in high-speed, high-volume, or highly automated manufacturing environments
• Experience transforming a reactive maintenance organization into a more planned, preventive, and reliability-focused operation
• Experience with continuous improvement, Lean manufacturing, OEE, and equipment-performance initiatives
• Experience leading significant equipment installations, facility upgrades, automation projects, or production-line improvements

What This Role Offers

• High-impact leadership role with visibility across plant operations
• Opportunity to directly influence the site's maintenance strategy and reliability culture
• Ownership of meaningful reliability, continuous-improvement, and capital initiatives
• Opportunity to develop maintenance systems and technical teams
• Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits
• Relocation assistance available