Associate Director, Maintenance & Reliability – Dairy Plant

Nexus Search; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Nexus Search partners with a global dairy manufacturer to appoint an Associate Director of Maintenance for a large-scale US site. This hands-on role combines floor oversight with strategic direction to elevate reliability and uptime across several high-speed lines.

The ideal candidate will lead a diverse maintenance team, own the budget and capital planning, and drive long-term improvements through predictive maintenance and strong leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive maintenance experience in manufacturing.
• Experience leading a maintenance team at a large, multi-line site.
• Food, beverage, or dairy processing background strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, or related field preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the site maintenance function day to day across multiple shifts.
• Set multi-year maintenance and reliability strategy aligned to capacity and costs.
• Own maintenance budget, spare parts strategy, and capex planning.
• Lead line upgrades and new installations from scoping to commissioning.
• Develop preventive and predictive maintenance programs to cut downtime.
• Conduct root cause investigations and drive closure of corrective actions.
• Collaborate with Operations, Quality, and Engineering to keep lines safe.
• Manage CMMS data, work orders, and maintenance KPIs to drive gains.
• Ensure OSHA, FDA, FSMA, and GFSI compliance including LOTO and ammonia safety.
• Develop the maintenance team through coaching and succession planning.

Skills

Maintenance leadership

Budget ownership

CMMS

Preventive maintenance

Ammonia refrigeration

Electrical systems

Process equipment knowledge

Lean/continuous improvement

Downtime reduction

People development

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, or related field

Tools

CMMS platforms

Job description

Nexus Search partners with a global dairy manufacturer to appoint an Associate Director of Maintenance for a large-scale US site. This hands-on role combines floor oversight with strategic direction to elevate reliability and uptime across several high-speed lines.

The ideal candidate will lead a diverse maintenance team, own the budget and capital planning, and drive long-term improvements through predictive maintenance and strong leadership.