Plant Technical Leader
Listed on 2026-08-30
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Manufacturing / Production
Industrial Maintenance, Maintenance Technician / Mechanic, Manufacturing & Industrial Operations, Production Manager
Who We Are
At Jonny Pops, our team is empowered to make an impact at work every day — from producing high-quality, innovative frozen novelties to spreading kindness onepopat a time. We look for bright and ambitious individuals who seek out challenges, thrive in fast-paced and high-growth environments, align with our core values, and get fulfillment from seeing their work transform the world around them.
Based in Elk River, MN, Jonny Pops develops, manufactures, distributes, and markets frozen novelties. Retailers from coast to coast — including Target, Costco, Publix, Kroger, and Cub, along with thousands of regional and local grocers — make Jonny Pops part of their assortment.
Growing from a dorm-room start-up in 2012, Jonny Pops’ mission is to make “A Better Pop for a Better World!” Jonny Pops leads the frozen novelties space in innovation and uses simple ingredients with no artificial dyes. Every pop stick includes akinddeed, spreading kindness every day.
Why This Role Exists
Our Elk River plant runs 24/7, and every point of unplanned downtime, every scrambled part order, and every missed handoff between maintenance, engineering, and production scheduling directly erodes the margin, quality, and case-fill commitments our 2026 goals depend on. The Plant Technical Manager exists to own that connective tissue — leading the maintenance, parts planning, and manufacturing engineering functions as one integrated system, not three separate teams.
This role is the single point of accountability for plant reliability: keeping equipment running, keeping parts spend disciplined, and keeping the plant’s technical plans tightly synced with production scheduling and the broader operating goals — all without ever losing sight of the people and food safety standards that make that uptime worth having.
Job Summary
The Plant Technical Manager leads the day-to-day operations of plant reliability at our Elk River facility, directing a team of five — a Maintenance Lead Supervisor, a Maintenance Parts & Scheduling Planner, and three Manufacturing Engineers. This role owns equipment uptime, drives cost reduction across parts and maintenance spend, and ensures technical planning is fully connected to production scheduling and plant-wide goals.
Human safety and food safety are built into every area this role touches, not treated as a separate function — this is a hands‑on, “dirt under your fingernails” leadership role for someone who wants to build a disciplined, well‑run plant reliability operation from the ground up.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Plant Reliability & Uptime
Own equipment uptime as the primary reliability metric for the Elk River plant, driving root‑cause resolution on recurring downtime events.
Direct the preventative maintenance program across all production lines, packaging equipment, refrigeration systems, and critical facility assets.
Establish and trackreliabilityKPIs (uptime, MTBF, MTTR) and report performance trends to plant and operations leadership.
Champion continuous improvement in maintenance practices, adopting proven tools and technologies (e.g., CMMS, vision systems, HTST equipment standards) to reduce unplanned downtime.
Team Leadership & Development
Lead, coach, and develop a team of five direct reports: the Maintenance Lead Supervisor, the Maintenance Parts & Scheduling Planner, and three Manufacturing Engineers.
Set clear role expectations, accountability standards, and performance goals for each function, ensuring role clarity across shifts.
Foster a collaborative, safety‑first team culture that gets “dirt under its fingernails” — staying close to the equipment, the line, and the people running it.
Build bench strength and succession depth within the maintenance and engineering team as the plant scales.
Parts, Inventory & Maintenance Cost Management
Own cost reduction on maintenance parts and MRO spend as a core, measurable KPI, partnering with the Maintenance Parts & Scheduling Planner on sourcing, vendor negotiation, and inventory discipline.
Oversee parts inventory strategy to balance uptime protection (critical spares on hand) against carrying cost.
Own and manage the maintenance and…
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