Fleet Maintenance Director

Risus Talent Partners; Gainesville (GA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Risus Talent Partners is seeking an experienced Fleet Maintenance Director to lead maintenance strategy, reliability, vendor management, and service operations across a geographically dispersed commercial fleet. This hands-on leadership role focuses on evaluating and strengthening the current operation, building scalable systems for growth, and driving accountability.

The ideal candidate combines heavy‑duty fleet maintenance expertise with strong people leadership, vendor management, and

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading maintenance operations for heavy trucks or similar fleets.
• Strong preventive maintenance, reliability, and repair operations knowledge.
• Experience managing geographically dispersed fleets or multi-location operations.
• Proven track record leading managers, technicians, or fleet teams.
• Experience negotiating vendor contracts and managing costs.
• Ability to develop SOPs, processes and performance standards.
• Excellent change-management and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Proficiency with Excel, reporting, and data analysis to drive decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead overall fleet maintenance strategy, uptime, and service execution.
• Oversee maintenance coordination, mobile technician ops, and third-party repairs.
• Develop and mentor maintenance leaders and teams.
• Establish scalable maintenance processes and accountability standards.
• Create preventative maintenance programs to reduce downtime and improve reliability.
• Manage vendor relationships, pricing, contracts, and performance expectations.
• Review repair recommendations and costs for necessity and quality.
• Develop KPIs for downtime, uptime, costs, and vendor performance.
• Analyze maintenance history and fleet data to identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Create reports/dashboards to support operational decisions.
• Collaborate with customers, vendors, technicians, and leadership to resolve issues.
• Scale maintenance processes as fleet size and coverage grow.

Skills

Fleet leadership

Preventive maintenance

Vendor management

Data analysis

Excel

Stakeholder communication

Change management

KPI development

Tools

CMMS/ERP software

Job description

Schedule

Full-Time | Hybrid, 3 Days Onsite / 2 Days Remote

Travel

Approximately 10-15%

Overview

A growing transportation and fleet services organization is seeking an experienced Fleet Maintenance Director to lead fleet maintenance strategy, reliability, vendor management, and service operations across a geographically dispersed commercial fleet.

This is a hands-on operational leadership role for someone who can evaluate an existing maintenance operation, strengthen processes and accountability, and build scalable systems that support continued growth.

The ideal candidate combines strong heavy-duty fleet maintenance knowledge with people leadership, vendor management, analytical skills, and experience improving maintenance operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead overall fleet maintenance strategy, preventative maintenance programs, uptime, reliability, and service execution.
• Oversee maintenance coordination, breakdown support, mobile technician operations, and third-party repair activity.
• Lead and develop maintenance leaders and their teams.
• Evaluate existing maintenance processes and establish scalable procedures, standards, and accountability.
• Build preventative maintenance programs designed to reduce downtime and improve fleet reliability.
• Manage relationships with third-party repair facilities, service providers, and other maintenance vendors.
• Negotiate vendor pricing, contracts, service agreements, and performance expectations.
• Review repair recommendations and costs to ensure work is appropriate, necessary, and completed to established standards.
• Develop and monitor maintenance KPIs related to downtime, uptime, repair costs, preventative maintenance, and vendor performance.
• Analyze historical maintenance and fleet data to identify trends, cost‑saving opportunities, and operational improvements.
• Create reports and dashboards that support operational decision-making.
• Partner with customers, vendors, technicians, and internal leadership to resolve maintenance and service issues.
• Support the development of scalable maintenance processes as fleet size and geographic coverage expand.
• Lead operational change by understanding existing processes, building credibility with employees, communicating expectations, and creating team buy-in.
• Establish clear expectations and accountability while supporting a collaborative and service‑focused culture.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading maintenance operations for heavy‑duty trucks, commercial vehicles, or a comparable fleet environment.
• Strong understanding of preventative maintenance, fleet reliability, mechanical systems, and repair operations.
• Experience managing a geographically dispersed fleet or multi‑location maintenance operation.
• Previous experience leading managers, technicians, mechanics, or fleet maintenance teams.
• Strong third‑party repair vendor management experience.
• Experience negotiating vendor pricing, service agreements, and contracts.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate repair recommendations, challenge unnecessary work, and manage maintenance costs.
• Experience building or improving maintenance SOPs, processes, and performance standards.
• Strong change‑management skills with the ability to introduce new processes while gaining employee buy‑in.
• Experience developing and tracking fleet maintenance KPIs.
• Strong Excel, reporting, and data‑analysis skills.
• Ability to analyze maintenance history, downtime, repair costs, and vendor performance.
• Strong communication and customer‑facing skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Comfortable operating in a growing organization where processes and infrastructure are still being developed.
• Ability to work independently, establish priorities, and take ownership of fleet maintenance operations.

Preferred Background

• Experience scaling a fleet maintenance operation during periods of significant growth.
• Experience working with both internal technicians and outsourced repair providers.
• Experience improving vendor performance and reducing fleet maintenance costs.
• Experience implementing or improving fleet maintenance reporting systems.
• Background working with long‑tenured teams through periods of operational change.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate will quickly develop an understanding of the existing maintenance operation, build strong relationships with the team, and identify opportunities to improve reliability, vendor performance, reporting, and accountability.

Over time, this leader will establish scalable maintenance processes and performance standards that support continued fleet and geographic growth.