Locomotive Reliability Leader for Fleet Excellence

Pacific National; Newcastle; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid parental leave

Novated Leasing

Fitness Passport

Purchase leave program

Access to EAP program through Sonder

Job summary

Pacific National, Australia’s largest private rail freight operator, invites you to join our Bulk & Coal team as a Reliability Engineering Manager with locations in Melbourne, Newcastle or Townsville.

Lead a team of locomotive engineers, drive reliability strategies, and partner with OEMs and operations to maximise fleet availability, reduce downtime and optimise whole‑of‑life asset costs.

Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering, preferably Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronic or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience in reliability engineering, asset performance or maintenance optimisation within rolling stock, heavy industry, mining, transport or similar complex operational environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing technical or engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of fleet engineers, building technical capability and fostering a strong safety and continuous improvement culture.
• Develop and implement locomotive reliability strategies, engineering standards and governance frameworks to support safe and reliable fleet performance.
• Analyse fleet performance, failure trends and reliability data to identify improvement opportunities and reduce service-affecting failures.
• Lead root cause analysis, defect elimination and reliability improvement initiatives to improve locomotive availability and reduce unplanned downtime.
• Partner with maintenance and operations teams to optimise maintenance strategies, improve asset performance and extend asset life.
• Collaborate with OEMs, suppliers and internal stakeholders to resolve technical issues and deliver fleet improvements.
• Provide technical leadership, performance reporting and insights to support strategic decision‑making, cost optimisation and asset management objectives.
• Drive innovation through data analytics, predictive maintenance and modern reliability engineering practices.

Skills

Reliability engineering

RCA

RCM

FMEA

Data analysis

Asset management

Stakeholder engagement

Safety & governance

Team leadership

Education

Engineering degree (Mechanical/Electrical/Mechatronic)

Job description

Pacific National, Australia’s largest private rail freight operator, invites you to join our Bulk & Coal team as a Reliability Engineering Manager with locations in Melbourne, Newcastle or Townsville.

Lead a team of locomotive engineers, drive reliability strategies, and partner with OEMs and operations to maximise fleet availability, reduce downtime and optimise whole‑of‑life asset costs.