Enterprise Director, Maintenance & Reliability Strategy

Novolex; Lake Forest (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with company match

Medical, dental and vision insurance

Paid vacation and holidays

Tuition Reimbursement Program

Job summary

Novolex is seeking a Director of Maintenance to lead enterprise-wide strategies across its manufacturing network. You will drive preventive and predictive maintenance programs, optimize asset uptime, and guide maintenance governance to improve reliability and cost efficiency.

You will collaborate with Operations, Engineering, EH&S, Procurement, and Finance to align priorities, reduce unplanned downtime, and ensure safe, reliable production across multiple plants. Travel up to 50% is expected.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in maintenance leadership, reliability engineering, manufacturing operations, or related functions.
• 8+ years of leadership experience leading multi-site maintenance or similar teams.
• Proven track record in improving equipment reliability, uptime, and maintenance cost effectiveness.
• Experience implementing preventive/predictive maintenance, planning & scheduling, and maintenance governance.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing equipment, plant utilities, spare parts management, and contractor management.
• Experience with maintenance management systems and performance reporting.

Responsibilities

• Champion a safety-first maintenance culture and ensure compliance with standards and regulatory requirements.
• Develop and lead enterprise maintenance strategy, preventive/predictive maintenance, and reliability improvements.
• Identify organizational needs, capability gaps, and governance requirements to execute maintenance strategy.
• Partner with plant leadership to improve uptime, reduce downtime, and enhance maintenance execution across sites.
• Drive standardization of maintenance systems, processes, and performance metrics.
• Build leadership capability through coaching, development, succession planning, and performance management.
• Provide executive escalation support for complex reliability and maintenance issues.
• Collaborate on capital initiatives from review to handoff, ensuring safety and operational readiness.
• Lead cross-functional maintenance projects with accountability for safety, schedule, budget, and quality.
• Develop OEM partnerships and service agreements for standardized maintenance programs and parts management.
• Maintain maintenance performance reporting on uptime, downtime, work orders, and contractor performance.
• Optimize maintenance spend, spare parts inventory, and vendor performance in collaboration with Procurement and Finance.

Skills

Maintenance leadership

Reliability engineering

Asset management

Strategic planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Budgeting

Project management

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related

Tools

CMMS (Maintenance software)

Reliability tools

Job description

Novolex is seeking a Director of Maintenance to lead enterprise-wide strategies across its manufacturing network. You will drive preventive and predictive maintenance programs, optimize asset uptime, and guide maintenance governance to improve reliability and cost efficiency.

You will collaborate with Operations, Engineering, EH&S, Procurement, and Finance to align priorities, reduce unplanned downtime, and ensure safe, reliable production across multiple plants. Travel up to 50% is expected.