Maintenance Manager

Job Summary

The Maintenance Manager is responsible for leading all maintenance, reliability, and asset management activities within a fiber optic cable manufacturing facility. This role ensures optimal equipment uptime, process stability, and safe operations by deploying best-in-class preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. The position plays a critical role in supporting production throughput, quality standards, and cost efficiency through strong technical leadership and disciplined execution.

Responsibilities

Safety & Compliance

* Ensure compliance with all safety, environmental, and regulatory requirements

* Promote a zero-incident culture within the maintenance organization

* Ensure maintenance activities comply with all safety absolutes, LOTO requirements, electrical safety standards, and company EHS policies

* Lead safety engagement activities within the maintenance department and ensure all maintenance personnel and contractors follow safe work practices

* Lead incident investigations and implement corrective actions

* Collaborate with EHS to ensure maintenance activities comply with all safety absolutes, environmental requirements, and regulatory standards

Maintenance Strategy & Execution

* Develop and implement a comprehensive preventive and predictive maintenance (PM/PdM) program

* Lead predictive maintenance initiatives including vibration analysis, thermography, condition monitoring, and root cause failure analysis

* Drive equipment reliability and uptime across all production areas (buffering lines, jacketing lines, stranding equipment, etc.)

* Establish and enforce standard work for maintenance activities

* Lead troubleshooting and rapid response to unplanned downtime events

* Manage and control maintenance spare parts inventory to ensure critical parts availability while controlling costs

* Establish maintenance KPIs including MTBF, MTTR, PM completion rates, and equipment reliability metrics

* Support emergency breakdown response and drive proactive maintenance strategies to reduce downtime

* Provide maintenance leadership support during off-shift hours, holidays, weekends, and emergency situations as needed to support plant operations and equipment reliability

* Maintain flexibility to respond to critical equipment failures and operational needs outside normal working hours

* Support plant startup, shutdown, and major maintenance activities during scheduled outages or off-shift production windows when required

Reliability & Continuous Improvement

* Implement reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and root cause failure analysis (RCFA)

* Partner with operations and engineering on continuous improvement initiatives (OEE improvement, scrap reduction, yield improvement)

* Support continuous improvement initiatives including TPM, 5S, reliability improvement, and maintenance best practices

* Utilize data (CMMS/MES) to drive failure analysis and predictive insights

* Lead Kaizen events and maintenance optimization projects

* Participate in plant continuous improvement efforts and support operational excellence initiatives across all departments

Team Leadership & Development

* Lead, coach, and develop a team of maintenance technicians, planners, leads and supervisors

* Establish clear performance expectations and accountability

* Build technical capability in electrical, mechanical, PLC, and automation systems

* Drive a culture aligned to operational principles (e.g., accountability, ownership, continuous improvement

* Drive proactive vs reactive culture

Planning, Scheduling & CMMS

* Oversee maintenance planning and scheduling processes to ensure efficient execution and minimal production disruption

* Ensure disciplined use of CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System)

* Optimize work order management, spare parts inventory, and labor utilization

* Improve schedule compliance and PM completion rates

* Manage PM compliance, scheduling, backlog control, and maintenance planning activities.

Capital Projects & Equipment Lifecycle

* Support capital projects, equipment installation, and commissioning

* Provide input on equipment selection, maintainability, and reliability design

* Manage equipment lifecycle strategies including replacement planning and obsolescence management

Cross-Functional Collaboration

* Work closely with Engineering, Process, Operations, Quality Control, and EHS departments to support production goals, equipment reliability, process improvements, and plant safety initiatives

* Partner with cross-functional teams to identify and resolve equipment and process-related issues impacting safety, quality, delivery, and productivity

* Support plant initiatives by coordinating maintenance activities with Operations and Engineering to minimize downtime and improve overall equipment effectiveness

* Work with Quality Control and Process Engineering teams to support product quality improvements and corrective action activities related to equipment performance

* Support new product introductions (NPI) and process changes

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