Associate Director, Engineering & Maintenance

Responsibilities

• Lead all engineering, maintenance, reliability, and facilities activities to ensure safe, efficient, and reliable plant operations.
• Develop and execute long-term maintenance strategies that improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and increase manufacturing capacity.
• Direct preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs utilizing industry best practices and reliability-centered maintenance principles.
• Establish department objectives, performance metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives aligned with business goals.
• Foster a culture of accountability, operational excellence, and employee engagement throughout the maintenance organization.
• Develop and manage the site's multi-year capital investment strategy.
• Lead capital projects from planning and budgeting through installation, commissioning, and startup.
• Ensure projects are completed safely, on schedule, within budget, and deliver expected operational improvements.
• Capture and analyze equipment performance data to identify opportunities for increased efficiency, reduced maintenance costs, and improved asset utilization.
• Implement best practices in maintenance planning, scheduling, and reliability engineering.
• Recruit, develop, mentor, and retain a high-performing engineering and maintenance team.
• Build organizational capability through coaching, training, succession planning, and performance management.
• Ensure employees have the tools, technical training, and resources necessary for success.
• Promote collaboration across engineering, maintenance, operations, quality, and supply chain functions.
• Partner closely with Operations, Production, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and Corporate Engineering to support business objectives.
• Coordinate major shutdowns, equipment installations, and maintenance activities to minimize production disruptions.
• Develop and maintain productive relationships with contractors, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers.

Qualifications

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• Required: Minimum 5 years of leadership experience managing engineering or maintenance teams in a manufacturing environment.
• Required: Minimum 5 years of experience leading engineering capital projects.
• Required: Manufacturing industry experience with responsibility for equipment reliability and maintenance operations.
• Required: Proven experience managing preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
• Required: Strong leadership, project management, and problem-solving skills.
• Required: Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration abilities.
• Preferred: Master's degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
• Preferred: 8+ years of engineering and maintenance leadership experience within manufacturing.
• Preferred: Experience in food manufacturing, preferably bakery or consumer packaged goods.
• Preferred: Professional certifications such as PMP, CMRP, SMRP, or Lean Six Sigma.
• Preferred: Experience developing and executing capital investment strategies and CAPEX budgets.
• Preferred: Strong knowledge of maintenance management systems (CMMS), reliability engineering, and asset management.
• Preferred: Demonstrated success implementing continuous improvement initiatives that increase equipment reliability and plant performance.
• Preferred: Experience leading organizational change and developing high-performing technical teams.