What are the responsibilities and job description for the Reliability Engineer position at Food Management Search?
Role Overview
The Reliability Engineer is responsible for strengthening equipment uptime, asset performance, and long-term maintainability across manufacturing operations. This role blends hands-on engineering, people leadership, and reliability strategy to reduce unplanned downtime, improve safety, and support consistent production output. The position includes leadership of maintenance personnel and close collaboration with engineering and operations teams.
What You’ll Be Doing
• Lead reliability and maintenance strategies for production equipment, utilities, building systems, and controls
• Provide technical direction and daily leadership to maintenance and technical teams
• Plan work schedules, assign resources, and oversee repair and preventive maintenance activities
• Coach and train maintenance personnel to ensure skills alignment and continuous improvement
• Establish and refine preventive and predictive maintenance programs to maximize asset life
• Implement condition-based monitoring tools such as vibration analysis, oil analysis, and thermography
• Analyze chronic equipment issues and lead root cause investigations to prevent repeat failures
• Partner with Engineering on new equipment installs, upgrades, and plant modifications to ensure long-term reliability
• Contribute to risk assessments that identify threats to uptime, safety, quality, and compliance
• Support supplier selection, MRO strategies, and contractor performance evaluation
• Develop maintenance documentation, procedures, and performance metrics
• Participate in commissioning, acceptance testing, and inspection criteria for new or modified assets
Qualifications
Required / Preferred Background
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related technical discipline
• 3 years of experience in maintenance, reliability, or manufacturing engineering environments
• Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting capabilities
• Experience leading or supervising maintenance teams
Technical Skills
• Working knowledge of preventive and predictive maintenance methodologies
• Familiarity with CMMS platforms (Maintenance Connection, SAP, or similar)
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools
• Understanding of failure analysis, risk-based maintenance, and asset lifecycle management
Professional Strengths
• Ability to influence and collaborate across production, engineering, logistics, and external partners
• Strong communication, organization, and prioritization skills
• Confident people leader with a coaching and development mindset
Nice-to-Have Experience
• Experience supporting automated or highly engineered manufacturing equipment
• Exposure to Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and root cause analysis
• Background in plastics manufacturing, extrusion, calendaring, or conveying systems
• Familiarity with advanced condition-monitoring technologies
• Ability to read German is a plus
Compensation & Benefits
• 401(k) with company match
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance
• Flexible spending account
• Employee assistance program
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Referral program