The Maintenance Manager provides plant-wide leadership for maintenance operations at our facility.
This role leads maintenance employees, preventive maintenance programs, emergency repairs, work orders, spare-parts controls, contractors, budgets, and teams with our Project Engineer on capital projects. The Maintenance Manager partners with Operations, Safety, Food Safety and Quality Assurance, Sanitation, and Engineering to reduce downtime, improve equipment reliability, and maintain regulatory compliance.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Follow and support all company safety, food-safety, animal-welfare, quality, sanitation, environmental, security, and regulatory policies and procedures applicable to the role.
- Direct the daily activities of the Maintenance Department
- Oversee the inspection, troubleshooting, repair, installation, and maintenance of production equipment, refrigeration systems, utilities, wastewater systems, and facility infrastructure.
- Establish and maintain preventive and predictive maintenance programs to improve equipment reliability and reduce unplanned downtime.
- Prioritize and assign work orders based on safety, food-safety risk, equipment condition, production needs, and operational priorities.
- Monitor recurring equipment failures and implement corrective actions and long-term reliability improvements.
- Maintain accurate equipment records, maintenance histories, technical documentation, and work-order information.
- Manage critical spare parts, maintenance tools, equipment, and supplies while maintaining appropriate inventory levels and controlling costs.
- Lead, schedule, train, and develop maintenance employees while establishing clear expectations for safety, performance, productivity, attendance, and accountability.
- Review employee time records, manage overtime, conduct performance evaluations, and address performance or disciplinary matters in partnership with Human Resources.
- Plan and manage capital projects, equipment installations, facility improvements, and major repairs from initial planning through completion.
- Develop project schedules and cost estimates, coordinate resources, and ensure projects are completed safely, on time, and within budget.
- Review technical drawings, equipment specifications, and proposed designs to confirm operational suitability.
- Coordinate and oversee contractors and vendors performing repairs, inspections, installations, and other work throughout the facility.
- Ensure contractors comply with company safety, food-safety, sanitation, security, and project requirements.
- Enforce safe work practices, including lockout/tagout, confined-space entry, hot-work requirements, fall protection, and machine guarding.
- Ensure maintenance work does not create contamination, foreign-material, or product-integrity risks in slaughter, processing, cooler, or product-handling areas.
- Coordinate maintenance activities with Operations, Sanitation, and Food Safety and Quality Assurance to protect product integrity and minimize production interruptions.
- Maintain a clean, organized, and safe maintenance shop and work environment.
- Support emergency response and after-hours maintenance needs when required by business conditions.
- Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Key Performance Indicators
Performance may be evaluated using measures such as
- Equipment uptime and production downtime
- Preventive maintenance completion rate
- Work-order completion and backlog
- Repeat equipment failures and emergency repairs
- Maintenance labor, overtime, and budget performance
- Spare-parts availability and inventory accuracy
- Capital-project completion, cost, and schedule performance
- Safety performance and corrective-action completion
- Regulatory, food-safety, and audit compliance
- Employee training, development, and retention
Required Qualifications
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Maintenance, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field required.
Experience
- Minimum of five years of maintenance management or supervisory experience in food processing
- Knowledge Skills and Competencies
- Demonstrated leadership ability, sound judgment, accountability, integrity, and strong interpersonal skills.
- Strong mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic troubleshooting skills.
- Knowledge of industrial production equipment, utilities, preventive maintenance, and equipment-reliability practices.
- Ability to read and interpret technical manuals, schematics, blueprints, and equipment documentation.
- Knowledge of applicable safety requirements, including lockout/tagout and machine guarding.
- Strong problem-solving, organizational, project-management, and decision-making skills.
- Ability to respond effectively to equipment failures and operational emergencies in a fast-paced production environment.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.
- Experience with computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS/EAM) and CAD software preferred.
- Ability to work effectively with employees at all organizational levels, contractors, vendors, and regulatory representatives.