Maintenance & Engineering Manager
Position Overview
The Maintenance & Engineering Manager is responsible for leading site maintenance, equipment reliability, mechanical integrity, and technical engineering activities within a process manufacturing environment. This position oversees maintenance strategy and execution while ensuring equipment availability, regulatory compliance, process safety, and continuous improvement.
The role also leads the site's engineering and technical resources, supporting process optimization, control systems, production scale-ups, facility improvements, capital projects, and operational reliability initiatives.
This position requires a strong combination of engineering knowledge, maintenance leadership, regulatory awareness, and people-management skills.
Key Responsibilities
Maintenance & Reliability – 40%
- Lead and develop maintenance personnel while promoting a strong safety and performance culture.
- Manage preventive, predictive, proactive, and corrective maintenance programs.
- Ensure maintenance activities comply with Process Safety Management (PSM), ISO requirements, site procedures, and applicable regulatory standards.
- Monitor equipment performance and identify opportunities to improve reliability and asset utilization.
- Analyze recurring equipment failures and lead root cause investigations.
- Develop corrective actions that improve equipment reliability and reduce unplanned downtime.
- Manage maintenance department budgets, outside services, and contractor expenditures.
- Oversee contractor activities to ensure work meets site safety, quality, engineering, and operational standards.
- Establish quality expectations for replacement parts, spare parts, and components supplied by OEMs and third-party vendors.
- Develop equipment reliability reports, performance metrics, and improvement plans.
- Lead maintenance planning and execution for plant outages, turnarounds, and major shutdown activities.
Mechanical Integrity – 15%
- Lead and maintain the site's Mechanical Integrity program.
- Ensure critical equipment receives required inspections, testing, documentation, and maintenance.
- Coordinate internal personnel, contractors, and inspection providers to complete required equipment inspections.
- Maintain accurate records regarding equipment condition, inspection status, and upcoming Mechanical Integrity requirements.
- Support compliance with Process Safety Management and other applicable regulatory standards.
Engineering & Technical Leadership – 35%
- Lead site engineering and technical personnel supporting production and manufacturing operations.
- Identify and implement improvements that increase production capacity, reliability, product quality, and process efficiency.
- Provide engineering support for manufacturing equipment, utilities, facilities, and production processes.
- Support new product introductions, manufacturing scale-ups, process trials, and quality improvement initiatives.
- Lead or support process optimization and equipment improvement projects.
- Oversee plant control systems and support industrial cybersecurity initiatives.
- Coordinate smaller capital projects from concept through implementation.
- Develop project scopes, technical requirements, cost estimates, and project objectives.
- Work with operations, maintenance, quality, EHS, and other functional teams to implement technical solutions.
- Support plant utility systems, including boilers and related infrastructure where applicable.
- Support environmental management programs and facility improvement initiatives.
- Participate in Process Safety Management reviews, audits, and corrective actions.
- Serve as a site representative for applicable sustainability or manufacturing certification programs.
Safety, Compliance & Training – 10%
- Promote a strong site safety culture and actively participate in safety improvement programs.
- Support risk management, loss prevention, and operational compliance initiatives.
- Lead selected elements of the site's integrated safety, environmental, quality, and operational management systems.
- Develop and maintain maintenance and engineering procedures, policies, and work instructions.
- Develop training materials related to Mechanical Integrity, Process Safety Management, Management of Change, maintenance practices, and equipment reliability.
- Manage training and professional development activities for maintenance personnel.
- Identify workplace hazards, operational risks, and opportunities for improvement.
- Participate in incident, near-miss, and equipment-failure investigations as needed.
Leadership & Accountability
The Maintenance & Engineering Manager is accountable for ensuring that maintenance and engineering activities support safe, reliable, and efficient plant operations.
This individual will work closely with Operations, EHS, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, and site leadership to identify performance gaps and implement sustainable improvements.
Additional responsibilities include:
- Improving equipment availability and overall asset reliability.
- Reducing unplanned downtime and recurring equipment failures.
- Developing short- and long-term maintenance and reliability strategies.
- Prioritizing maintenance and engineering resources based on operational risk and business impact.
- Supporting capital planning and site improvement initiatives.
- Driving technical problem-solving through cross-functional teams.
- Establishing measurable goals and action plans that improve plant performance.
- Providing technical guidance to site leadership regarding equipment, processes, utilities, and facility infrastructure.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
- 5+ years of experience within chemical processing, specialty materials, polymers, continuous manufacturing, process manufacturing, plant engineering, project engineering, or a related industrial environment.
- Strong understanding of manufacturing equipment, maintenance practices, and equipment reliability principles.
- Experience supporting Process Safety Management (PSM), Mechanical Integrity, or similar regulated maintenance programs.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis capabilities.
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple projects and operational needs using data and business impact.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with operations, maintenance, engineering, EHS, quality, contractors, and senior leadership.
- Demonstrated ability to establish performance goals and execute improvement plans.
- Strong leadership, organizational, and decision-making skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Previous maintenance leadership or maintenance engineering experience.
- Previous supervisory or people-management experience.
- Experience in chemical, polymer, resin, coatings, specialty materials, or similar process manufacturing environments.
- Experience with plant utilities, steam systems, fired boilers, or related infrastructure.
- Experience with capital projects, process improvements, and manufacturing scale-up activities.
- Familiarity with industrial control systems and operational technology cybersecurity.
- Experience working within ISO-certified or highly regulated manufacturing environments.