Maintenance & Engineering Manager

Mission

MUSH Founded in 2015, MUSH manufactures, distributes, and markets ready-to-eat food products designed to make healthy eating more convenient. Our mission is to make healthy food more convenient so that humankind can feel, think, and do better.

Role Overview

The Maintenance & Engineering Manager leads the maintenance, reliability, and engineering function for MUSH’s ready-to-eat food manufacturing facility. This role is responsible for ensuring production equipment, utilities, and facility systems operate safely, reliably, and efficiently while supporting food safety, product quality, and operational performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintenance & Reliability Leadership:

  • Lead and continue to develop the Maintenance team, including scheduling, prioritization, performance management, coaching, and technical development
  • Ensure appropriate maintenance coverage to support plant operating schedules and business needs
  • Build, maintain, and continuously improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs for production equipment, utilities, and facility systems
  • Drive equipment reliability, uptime, and overall operational performance through disciplined maintenance systems and data-driven decision-making
  • Lead troubleshooting and resolution of complex mechanical, electrical, controls, and equipment issues
  • Establish clear priorities for planned, preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance activities
  • Ensure work orders are properly documented, prioritized, completed, and closed in a timely manner
  • Analyze downtime, recurring failures, and maintenance trends to identify root causes and implement sustainable corrective actions
  • Develop and monitor key maintenance and reliability metrics, including equipment downtime, PM completion, recurring failures, and maintenance response

• Engineering & Continuous Improvement:

  • Lead engineering initiatives that improve equipment reliability, capacity, safety, quality, labor efficiency, and process performance
  • Partner with Operations and Quality to identify and implement opportunities for process optimization and continuous improvement
  • Provide technical leadership for equipment modifications, line improvements, automation, and manufacturing process changes
  • Apply structured problem-solving and root cause analysis to recurring equipment and process issues
  • Support development of equipment standards and technical specifications that enable scalable manufacturing growth
  • Identify opportunities to improve equipment design, maintainability, reliability, and hygienic performance

• Capital Projects & Equipment Installation:

  • Lead or support capital projects from technical evaluation and planning through installation, commissioning, and handoff to Operations
  • Partner with internal stakeholders, equipment manufacturers, contractors, and vendors to ensure successful project execution
  • Support equipment selection and technical evaluation for new manufacturing capabilities
  • Coordinate equipment installation, startup, commissioning, and validation activities
  • Ensure new and modified equipment meets operational, safety, food safety, quality, sanitation, and performance requirements
  • Develop maintenance strategies, spare parts requirements, and technical training plans for new equipment prior to operational handoff

• Safety & Compliance:

  • a strong safety culture across all maintenance and engineering activities
  • Ensure compliance with Lockout/Tagout requirements and other applicable OSHA and facility safety programs
  • Ensure maintenance work involving electrical systems, confined spaces, elevated work, hot work, and other high-risk activities follows established safety requirements
  • Partner with Safety and Operations to identify and eliminate equipment-related hazards
  • Ensure contractors and third-party service providers comply with facility safety, GMP, food safety, and site access requirements
  • Support machine guarding, electrical safety, and other equipment-related risk reduction initiatives

Qualifications

• Required:

  • 7+ years of progressive maintenance, engineering, or technical operations experience in a manufacturing environment
  • 2+ years of experience leading, supervising, or developing maintenance or technical teams
  • Experience in food, beverage, pharmaceutical, or another highly regulated manufacturing environment; food manufacturing experience strongly preferred
  • Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting capabilities
  • Experience with automated manufacturing and packaging equipment
  • Experience with reading and interpreting electrical, mechanical, and technical schematics
  • Experience managing spare parts inventory
  • Experience building and managing preventive maintenance programs
  • Strong understanding of equipment reliability and root cause problem-solving
  • Experience with maintenance work-order management
  • Working knowledge of GMPs and safety requirements within a manufacturing environment
  • Strong leadership, communication, organization, and prioritization skills

• PREFERRED:

  • Experience in a ready-to-eat food manufacturing environment
  • Experience with hygienic equipment design and sanitary maintenance practices
  • Experience leading capital projects, equipment installations, commissioning, and startup
  • Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Continuous Improvement, TPM, or reliability-centered maintenance practices
  • Experience supporting BRCGS, SQF, or similar GFSI-certified food manufacturing systems
  • Bilingual in English and Spanish

Physical & Work-Related Requirements

• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods in a manufacturing environment
• Ability to bend, climb, reach, and lift up to 50 pounds as required
• Ability to work around operating manufacturing equipment and in varying environmental conditions
• Ability to respond to urgent equipment or facility needs outside standard working hours when required
• Ability to work weekends and holidays as business needs require
• Ability to work in a facility that handles food allergens, including milk, peanuts and tree nuts