Maintenance Manager

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence and Integrity.

As a Maintenance Manager, you will build and develop the area maintenance organization, establish trade coverage and work practices, coordinate planned and unplanned maintenance, and ensure technicians are prepared to safely troubleshoot, repair, inspect, and maintain equipment from commissioning through steady-state production. The role is centered on practical maintenance leadership, workforce capability, work execution, and equipment ownership rather than an engineering background.

The ideal candidate has progressed through a skilled industrial trade and into maintenance supervision or management within a complex manufacturing environment. They will bring strong field leadership, sound troubleshooting judgment, disciplined work-management practices, and the ability to develop multi-craft teams that consistently execute safe, high-quality maintenance while supporting production, reliability, and cost objectives.

Maintenance Organization and Skilled Trades Leadership

• Build and lead the maintenance craft and trades team for assigned manufacturing areas, including staffing, shift and on-call coverage, span of control, technician assignments, and day-to-day floor leadership.
• Recruit, onboard, qualify, and develop skilled trades personnel, including industrial maintenance technicians, electricians, mechanics, millwrights, and other crafts required by the equipment base.
• Establish trade qualification matrices, cross-training plans, progression expectations, and practical competency standards so technicians can safely and independently support assigned equipment.
• Coach frontline supervisors, leads, and technicians on work quality, troubleshooting discipline, ownership, communication, and effective coordination with Operations and Engineering.

Maintenance Execution and Area Ownership

• Own maintenance execution for assigned production areas, ensuring planned, corrective, and emergent work is prioritized and completed safely, efficiently, and to an appropriate technical standard.
• Coordinate daily maintenance priorities with Operations, Planning & Scheduling, Reliability, Engineering, and Production leadership, balancing production needs with preventive maintenance and equipment health.
• Ensure equipment breakdowns are rapidly assessed, the appropriate trades and resources are deployed, repairs are technically sound, and equipment is verified before return to service.
• Manage the balance of preventive, predictive, corrective, and improvement work to control backlog, reduce repeat failures, and protect equipment availability without creating unnecessary maintenance burden.
• Coordinate technicians, contractors, OEM support, parts, tools, permits, and production access for major repairs, shutdowns, and other work requiring cross-functional execution.

Startup, Commissioning and Equipment Readiness

• Partner with cross functional engineering and design teams to establish equipment PMs, lubrication and inspection routines, critical spares, special tools, maintenance documentation, and initial job plans.
• Identify maintainability, access, serviceability, spare-parts, and recurring equipment issues during commissioning and drive closure before they become embedded operating constraints.
• Establish clear maintenance turnover and area-ownership practices so technicians understand equipment boundaries, escalation paths, maintenance standards, and responsibilities at startup.

Safety, Reliability and Continuous Improvement

• Set the standard for safe maintenance execution, including LOTO, electrical safety, hot work, confined-space entry, elevated work, rigging, stored-energy control, and other hazards associated with industrial maintenance.
• Ensure maintenance procedures, permits, job plans, pre-job reviews, and field execution are appropriate to the risk and complexity of the work being performed.
• Drive high-quality maintenance practices that improve equipment condition and reduce repeat failures, including precision installation, proper alignment and assembly, inspection discipline, and effective post-maintenance verification.
• Partner with Reliability and…