At Emmi Roth, we’re passionate about creating exceptional cheeses. As a leader in the specialty cheese industry, we blend traditional craftsmanship with innovation. Our commitment to local sourcing and quality makes us a trusted brand in the food industry.
Joining Emmi Roth means becoming part of a team that values creativity, collaboration, and a shared dedication to excellence. You’ll have the opportunity to work with some of the finest cheeses in the world while contributing to a company that prides itself on both heritage and progress. If you're passionate about food, craftsmanship, and making an impact, we’d love for you to be a part of our journey!
Job Summary
The Reliability Engineer is accountable for establishing a proactive, data-driven reliability culture across a 5-site network (3 cheese make plants, 1 converting facility, 1 distribution center). This role reduces unplanned downtime and cost by leading RCM/FMEA, PM optimization, reliability analytics, and sustainability-driven equipment improvements—translating asset performance data into measurable gains in uptime, energy efficiency, and total cost of ownership.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain equipment criticality rankings across all sites and establish reliability governance, KPIs, and performance routines aligned to supply chain objectives.
- Lead RCM and FMEA efforts on critical equipment and chronic loss areas to optimize preventive and predictive maintenance strategies using failure mode data.
- Standardize PM libraries, maintenance practices, and reliability tools across all sites to improve consistency, scale, and execution quality.
- Serve as the network subject matter expert on machine reliability and maintenance strategy, improving lubrication, inspection, condition monitoring, failure mode identification, and equipment design improvements.
- Partner with maintenance teams to improve wrench time, job quality, and repeatability, and bridge maintenance and engineering to ensure design-for-reliability in new CAPEX projects.
- Lead structured root cause analysis using A3, 8D, and other reliability methods for significant downtime events, and implement defect elimination systems to prevent recurrence.
- Identify and lead initiatives that reduce energy consumption and utilities losses, including compressed air, steam, refrigeration, water, and CIP inefficiencies, in partnership with utilities and operations teams.
- Integrate reliability with sustainability goals by reducing waste, improving equipment efficiency and lifecycle performance, and supporting KPI development tied to energy and sustainability performance.
- Own the reliability KPI framework, including MTBF, MTTR, OEE, PM compliance, schedule adherence, and emergency work order percentage, and translate data into prioritized improvement plans and business cases.
- Partner with the CMMS Planner/Scheduler to improve asset hierarchy, failure codes, job plans, work quality, and feedback loops while driving data integrity and standardization.
- Work cross-functionally with Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Safety & Sustainability to align reliability efforts to production throughput, food safety, and supply chain performance.
Qualifications / Minimum Requirements
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, or related field).
- 5+ years of experience in reliability, maintenance, manufacturing engineering, or asset performance improvement in a manufacturing environment.
- Experience supporting multi-site operations and leading cross-functional improvement initiatives is preferred.
Technical Skills
- Strong expertise in RCM, FMEA, root cause analysis, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, and equipment criticality assessment.
- Deep understanding of rotating equipment, process systems, packaging equipment, utilities, and maintenance best practices such as lubrication, alignment, inspection, rebuild strategies, and condition-based monitoring.
- Knowledge of industrial energy systems including steam, ammonia refrigeration, compressed air, and water systems, with the ability to identify inefficiencies and reduce total energy cost per unit.
- Understanding of sustainability drivers in manufacturing, including energy, water, waste, emissions, and the ability to translate sustainability goals into actionable plant-level improvements.
- Proficiency with CMMS systems, data integrity, and reliability analytics, with the ability to convert data into actionable insights and clear business cases.
- Lean and continuous improvement mindset focused on loss elimination, standardization, waste reduction, and lifecycle performance.
Leadership & Influence
- Strong problem-solving, analytical, and facilitation skills.
- Ability to influence without direct authority across multiple sites and functions.
- Effective communication and cross-functional collaboration skills with the ability to translate technical issues into business impact.
- Capability to lead cross-functional initiatives, drive adoption of standardized practices, and sustain accountability for results.
Physical Requirements
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is constantly required to use hands and fingers to handle or feel objects and controls.
- Constantly required to walk, bend and reach with hands and arms.
- Constantly required to talk and hear.
- Constantly sitting for long hours.
- Constantly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
- Occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.
- Occasionally lift and/or move up to 60 pounds.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus naturally or with correction.
Work environment
- Work is typically performed in a Production Plant Environment.
- Frequently exposed to a moderate level of noise that may make it difficult to concentrate.
- Frequently exposed to wet, humid with slippery conditions, hot and cold environment.
- Primarily plant-based with regular time spent on the production floor.
- May require occasional travel between facilities.
- Fast-paced manufacturing environment.
Benefits
- Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance
- Basic Life Insurance
- Voluntary Life Insurance
- Flexible spending accounts & Health Savings Accounts
- 401k Retirement Plan
- Paid Holidays
- Paid Vacation
- Employee Assistance Program
- Short term/Long term disability
- Volunteer time off (VTO)
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Pet insurance