Director of Maintenance

CAPITAL AREA TRANSIT SYSTEM; Baton Rouge (LA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital Area Transit System (CATS) seeks an experienced Director of Maintenance to provide executive leadership for fleet maintenance, vehicle availability, preventive maintenance, and asset management. This role oversees maintenance data, facilities, and transit amenities while coordinating with multiple departments to ensure safe, reliable service.

Ideal candidates have 7+ years in fleet or transit maintenance, 5+ years in management, and a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in fleet or transit maintenance or related field.
• 5+ years in managerial roles over managers, supervisors or major maintenance functions.
• Experience with preventive maintenance, vehicle availability, repair quality, and maintenance data systems.
• Experience managing departmental budgets, vendors, contracts, and labor resources.
• Strong knowledge of fleet maintenance operations, safety compliance and performance measures.

Responsibilities

• Lead fleet maintenance, facilities, and asset-management functions.
• Set priorities, procedures, staffing plans, and performance standards.
• Direct and evaluate maintenance managers and staff.
• Maintain accountability for daily fleet availability and safety.
• Monitor defects, repairs backlog, and repair turnaround.
• Ensure preventive maintenance inspections and scheduled maintenance are completed on time.
• Establish quality-control expectations for repairs and inspections.
• Address safety defects before returning to service.
• Oversee agency facilities, bus stops, shelters, and transit amenities.
• Maintain accurate work orders, parts, mileage, and asset records.
• Use data to identify trends and drive productivity and asset decisions.
• Manage operating and capital resources within budget.

Skills

Fleet maintenance

Leadership

Budget management

Safety compliance

Performance analytics

Education

Bachelor's degree in Fleet/Automotive/Engineering or related field

Tools

CMMS (e.g., eMaint)

Job description

Capital Area Transit System (CATS) is seeking an experienced Director of Maintenance to provide executive leadership for fleet maintenance, vehicle availability and reliability, preventive maintenance, repair quality, facilities and transit amenities, parts and inventory, maintenance data, and related asset-management functions.

The Director is accountable for maintaining safe, clean, reliable vehicles and facilities that support scheduled transit service. This position leads through managers and supervisors, establishes maintenance standards and accountability, manages departmental resources, and works closely with Transportation, Risk and Safety, Procurement, Finance, and executive leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead fleet maintenance, facilities, transit amenities, parts, maintenance data, and assigned asset-management functions.

• Establish departmental priorities, procedures, staffing plans, performance standards, and accountability measures.

• Direct and evaluate Maintenance managers, supervisors, and professional/support staff.

• Maintain senior accountability for daily fleet availability and safe, reliable pull-out.

• Monitor road calls, repeat defects, out-of-service vehicles, repair turnaround, reliability, and maintenance backlog.

• Ensure preventive maintenance inspections and scheduled maintenance are completed timely and to established standards.

• Establish quality-control expectations for repairs, inspections, safety defects, and return-to-service decisions.

• Ensure safety-critical defects are appropriately addressed before vehicles are returned to service.

• Oversee agency facilities, buildings and grounds, bus stops, shelters, and other assigned transit amenities.

• Ensure maintenance work orders, labor, parts, mileage, defects, inspections, and asset records are accurate and timely.

• Use maintenance and performance data to identify trends, improve productivity, manage backlog, and support fleet and asset decisions.

• Manage departmental operating and capital resources within approved budgets.

• Monitor overtime, parts usage, inventory, vendor performance, warranties, and contract requirements.

• Support vehicle, equipment, and facility specifications, procurement, acceptance, and commissioning.

• Ensure Maintenance operations comply with agency safety procedures and applicable regulatory requirements.

• Coordinate with Transportation, Risk and Safety, Procurement, Finance, Planning, and other departments to support agency operations.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in fleet maintenance, heavy-duty vehicle maintenance, transit maintenance, facilities maintenance, fleet operations, or a closely related field.

• Minimum of five (5) years of management experience, including responsibility for supervising managers, supervisors, maintenance personnel, or major maintenance functions.

• Demonstrated experience managing preventive maintenance, vehicle availability, repair quality, work-order systems, parts/inventory, or fleet reliability.

• Experience managing departmental budgets, vendors, contracts, labor resources, and operational performance.

• Strong knowledge of fleet maintenance operations, diagnostics, preventive maintenance, repair quality, safety compliance, and maintenance performance measures.

• Strong leadership, employee/labor relations, analytical, communication, organizational, and cross-departmental coordination skills.

• Bachelor's degree or technical degree in Fleet Management, Automotive/Diesel Technology, Engineering, Transportation, Business, Public Administration, or a related field; equivalent directly related education, technical certifications, and experience may be considered.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing public transit, heavy-duty bus, commercial fleet, municipal fleet, or similar large-scale maintenance operations.

• Experience leading multiple maintenance functions through managers and supervisors.

• Experience with fleet maintenance management systems, asset-management systems, and maintenance performance data.

• Experience with vehicle procurement, acceptance, warranties, and manufacturer/vendor relationships.

• Experience overseeing facilities, transit amenities, or other physical assets.

• Experience working in a unionized environment.

• Relevant fleet, automotive, diesel, maintenance, or asset-management certifications preferred.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work variable hours and respond to significant fleet, facility, or operational issues as service needs require.

• Ability to work in maintenance shops, facilities, field locations, and outdoor environments as necessary.

Capital Area Transit System is an Equal Opportunity Employer.