Maintenance and Engineering Manager

Guided Search Partners (GSP)

Guided Search Partners is an Executive Search firm built on Trust, Transparency, Specialization, and Long-term Relationships. We connect high-performing professionals with organizations that value people, performance, and growth—helping leaders find roles where they can make an impact and build meaningful careers.

We’re partnering with a custom fruit flavor ingredients manufacturer seeking a Maintenance & Engineering Manager. Since 1986, this organization has developed, manufactured, and provided custom value-added fruit flavor ingredients to the dairy, bakery, beverage, and food service industries. The company is backed by a middle‑market private investment firm focused on growth and performance improvement. This is a plant leadership role responsible for maintenance, plant engineering, reliability, and facilities.

The Maintenance & Engineering Manager will help ensure safe, efficient, and reliable operation of manufacturing equipment, utilities, and facility infrastructure while supporting production goals, food safety requirements, quality standards, and long‑term business growth.

You’ll lead maintenance and engineering activity across the plant with a focus on safety, reliability, continuous improvement, and operational performance.

• Lead, coach, and develop maintenance technicians, engineers, and technical support personnel
• Establish clear performance expectations, accountability measures, and development plans
• Build a culture of safety, reliability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement
• Develop preventive, predictive, and reliability‑centered maintenance programs
• Maximize equipment uptime through effective planning and scheduling
• Oversee troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance of mechanical, electrical, controls, utility, and facility systems
• Manage work orders, maintenance planning, asset history, and performance metrics through CMMS
• Track maintenance KPIs including downtime, OEE, PM compliance, costs, and equipment reliability
• Lead engineering initiatives around process optimization, capacity expansion, automation, and equipment modernization
• Support capital projects from concept through commissioning
• Coordinate contractors, vendors, consultants, and internal stakeholders
• Drive Lean Manufacturing, TPM, and continuous improvement initiatives
• Lead root cause failure analysis and corrective action programs
• Support compliance with OSHA, FDA, GMP, SQF, environmental regulations, and company policies
• Develop and manage annual maintenance and engineering operating budgets
• Manage maintenance parts and critical spare inventory

You are a hands‑on maintenance and engineering leader who understands how reliability, safety, food safety, and production performance connect.

You can lead technical teams, improve systems, and bring structure to maintenance and engineering activity. You are comfortable working cross‑functionally with Production, Quality, Supply Chain, and Corporate leadership to support plant goals.

You would do well here if you are a strong coach, a practical problem solver, and someone who can balance day‑to‑day plant needs with long‑term reliability and engineering improvements.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Engineering Technology, or related field
• 7–10+ years of progressive maintenance and engineering leadership experience in manufacturing
• Experience leading capital projects, facility expansions, equipment installations, and process improvements
• Strong knowledge of reliability engineering, TPM, Lean Manufacturing, and preventive/predictive maintenance systems
• Experience with PLCs, automation, controls, utilities, and process equipment preferred
• Food, beverage, ingredient, or consumer packaged goods manufacturing experience preferred
• PE, CMRP, CMM, PMP, or equivalent certifications are a plus
• Strong leadership, coaching, budgeting, vendor management, and problem‑solving skills
• Ability to support OSHA, FDA, GMP, SQF, environmental, and company policy compliance

This role is important because maintenance and engineering directly support plant safety, equipment reliability, production efficiency, food safety, and long‑term growth. The Maintenance & Engineering Manager will help build stronger systems, improve asset performance, support capital projects, and drive continuous improvement across the facility. This is a strong opportunity for a leader who wants to make a visible impact on plant performance and engineering excellence.