Director of Technical Services

POSITION MISSION

Build and lead a world-class engineering and maintenance organization that maximizes plant reliability, improves manufacturing efficiency, reduces operating costs through engineering and automation, and delivers capital investments that generate measurable business results.

The Director of Technical Services serves as the single point of accountability for Maintenance, Facilities, Engineering & Automation, and Capital Project Management. Success is measured not simply by projects completed or problems solved, but by building sustainable systems, developing a high-performing technical organization, and delivering measurable improvements in plant performance.

Primary Objective: Maximize plant asset reliability, optimize manufacturing processes, and execute capital engineering projects across the facility while ensuring zero down-time through robust preventative and predictive maintenance programs.

• Key Stakeholders: Direct reports include the Maintenance Manager, Process Engineers, Automation Engineers, and Reliability Techs. Partners with Plant Managers and acts as a peer to the Director of Quality.

Integrated Maintenance & Engineering Responsibilities

• Asset Reliability & Maintenance Strategy: Direct the plant-wide maintenance department. Oversee the execution of Preventative Maintenance (PM), Predictive Maintenance (PdM), and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) strategies to drive down unscheduled downtime.
• CMMS & Inventory Oversight: Manage the facility’s Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Optimize spare parts inventory, track work-order completion rates, and control maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) budgets.
• Process Engineering & Yield Optimization: Lead the technical team in auditing manufacturing lines, fixing process bottlenecks, and maximizing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
• Utility & Facility Management: Oversee critical plant utilities required for food processing, including boiler systems, ammonia refrigeration/chillers, compressed air, water purification, and waste-water treatment facilities.
• CapEx & Sanitary Engineering: Lead capital project execution from scoping to commissioning. Ensure all new equipment installations adhere to strict sanitary design principles and integrate seamlessly into existing automation grids.

Target Qualifications & Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Chemical Engineering.
• Experience: 10+ years of progressive leadership spanning both plant maintenance and process engineering within a highly automated food, beverage, or dairy environment.
• Technical Knowledge: Deep expertise in ammonia refrigeration systems (PSM), automated PLC networks (Allen-Bradley/Siemens), high-speed packaging lines, and steam/boiler operations.
• Key Metrics Managed: Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), OEE improvements, and MRO/CapEx budget variances