Maintenance Manager

The Judge Group is seeking a Maintenance Manager for a growing food manufacturing company in the Los Angeles, California area. This role leads maintenance and engineering activities in a fast-paced production environment, focusing on hands-on leadership and process improvement.

WORKSITE:Onsite

MUST HAVE:Bachelor's degree in engineering, maintenance, or a related field.

MUST HAVE:7+years of advancing maintenance or engineering management roles within food production.

MUST HAVE:Demonstrated ability to lead teams with practical expertise in mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and refrigeration systems.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- The Maintenance Manager will oversee daily maintenance operations, spending most of their time on the production floor with technicians and production teams. This position manages maintenance coverage across multiple shifts, develops preventive maintenance programs, and drives continuous improvement in equipment reliability and uptime.

- Direct daily maintenance activities, working closely with technicians and production staff.

- Oversee scheduling and coverage for both 1st and 2nd shifts, handling call-outs and downtime response.

- Mentor, train, and supervise maintenance leads, supervisors, and technicians.

- Develop, implement, and enhance maintenance procedures, work instructions, and standard operating procedures.

- Establish clear standards and accountability for the maintenance organization.

- Drive a shift from reactive repairs to preventive and predictive maintenance strategies.

- Design and manage preventive maintenance initiatives for production lines, utilities, and facility systems.

- Review and prioritize work orders and maintenance plans, coordinating repair windows with production needs.

- Maximize efficiency in the use of personnel, spare parts, tools, and external contractors.

- Administer spare parts inventory, manage critical spares, and maintain vendor and contractor partnerships.

- Ensure maintenance records are accurate and leverage the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for tracking.

- Report on key performance indicators such as equipment downtime, preventive maintenance completion, mean time between failures, backlog, and maintenance expenses.

- Work cross-functionally with production, sanitation, quality, and operations teams on scheduling, equipment changeovers, capital projects, and reporting.

- Uphold food safety, regulatory, and workplace safety requirements, including Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), sanitary equipment design, lockout/tagout, and Cal/OSHA compliance.

- Oversee the safe functioning and upkeep of refrigeration, boiler, compressed air, and other utility systems.

- Proactively identify operational and equipment issues, conduct root cause analysis, and implement lasting solutions.

- Foster leadership growth within the maintenance team through ongoing coaching and development.

- Support new equipment installations, system upgrades, and capital improvement initiatives.

REQUIREMENTS:

- More than 10 years in maintenance or engineering management roles.

- Substantial leadership experience in food manufacturing maintenance.

- Consistent career progression and reliability in previous positions.

- Background managing teams across multiple shifts.

- Proven ability to develop and guide maintenance supervisors, leads, and technicians.

- Practical leadership with a strong foundation in mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and refrigeration systems.

- Experience building and executing maintenance procedures, preventive maintenance programs, and SOPs.

- Dedication to driving process improvement and equipment reliability.

- Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership skills.

- Fluency in both English and Spanish.

- Strategic, forward-thinking, and proactive leadership style.

- Background in high-volume food manufacturing such as meat, protein, prepared foods, deli meats, or frozen foods is a plus.

- Experience with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) is advantageous.

- Knowledge of Lean, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), reliability-centered maintenance, or similar methodologies is preferred.

- Familiarity with ammonia or industrial refrigeration systems and associated safety protocols is desirable.

- Understanding of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), controls, and automated processing or packaging equipment is a plus.

- Strong skills in maintenance planning and scheduling.

- Experience with food safety audit standards like Safe Quality Food (SQF), BRCGS, or USDA requirements is preferred.

- Demonstrated success in elevating maintenance operations beyond routine upkeep.

BENEFITS:

- This company offers health, vacation, and other benefits with this position.

#JDP