Reliability & Maintenance Manager

POSITION SUMMARY: 

Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Reliability and Maintenance Manager is responsible for leading the plant’s maintenance, engineering, and reliability functions to support safe, efficient, and consistent plant operations. In a snack food manufacturing environment, product quality, safety, cost, and service all depend on reliable equipment performance. This role ensures the plant’s assets are a competitive advantage, not a daily operational risk. 

The Reliability and Maintenance Manager leads maintenance supervisors and maintenance team functions, with accountability for equipment uptime, asset health, spare parts readiness, and technical problem solving across the plant. This leader is responsible for developing and strengthening proactive, planned, and data-driven reliability programs through effective preventive maintenance, root cause analysis, spare parts management, and full utilization of Redzone.  

This position partners closely with Operations and cross-functional teams to reduce downtime, improve equipment performance, and support overall plant productivity. 

 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: 

Reliability and Uptime Ownership 

• Owns line uptime, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and overall equipment reliability for the plant.  

• Leads the plant toward a more planned, proactive, and data-driven maintenance culture.  

• Develops and maintains preventive and predictive maintenance programs that improve equipment performance and reduce downtime.  

• Leads root cause analysis and corrective action for recurring equipment issues, chronic losses, and breakdowns.  

• Partners with Production to address recurring downtime and improve day-to-day equipment performance.  

Maintenance and Engineering Leadership 

• Provides leadership and direction to maintenance supervisors and maintenance technicians.  

• Sets clear expectations for troubleshooting, work planning, and execution. 

• Develops technical capability across the team in electrical, mechanical, controls, refrigeration, and related areas.  

• Oversees contractor management and provides technical leadership for new equipment installations, line modifications, and capital projects.  

Spare Parts and Asset Management 

• Owns the plant’s spare parts strategy, including inventory accuracy, and critical spare availability.  

• Improves spare parts controls to reduce stockouts, emergency purchases, and excess or obsolete inventory.  

• Implements parts kitting and planning processes to better support scheduled maintenance work.  

• Maintains accurate asset hierarchy, equipment documentation, and maintenance records. 

Redzone and Data-Driven Execution 

• Uses Redzone to support work order management, PM compliance, downtime data analysis, technician accountability, and maintenance visibility.  

• Ensures Redzone data is accurate, timely, and used to identify trends, prioritize reliability work, and improve equipment performance.  

Food Safety, Safety and Compliance 

• Ensures maintenance work is completed in compliance with food safety, GMP, quality, safety, and regulatory requirements.  

• Reinforces safe maintenance practices, including Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), contractor safety, and other required safety procedures.  

• Supports ammonia/refrigeration compliance, documentation, inspections, and related maintenance requirements.  

• Maintains audit-ready maintenance records, including PM documentation, work orders, regulatory records, and contractor documentation.  

Financial and Performance Management 

• Manages the maintenance labor and MRO budget with a focus on cost control, stronger planning, and reduced emergency spend.  

• Supports capital planning, equipment upgrade recommendations, and ROI justification for performance improvement projects.  

• Tracks and improves key maintenance performance metrics, includ