Industrial Maintenance Technician; Millwright

Industrial Maintenance Technician (Millwright) - Job Description
Company Overview

Ancient Crunch Inc. is the fastest-growing healthy snack brand in the U.S. Our flagship product, MASA Chips, is the #1 selling tallow‑fried tortilla chips in premium retailers like Sprouts and Whole Foods. We manufacture all MASA in-house at our Hackettstown facility using real ingredients—no seed oils, artificial flavors, or preservatives. All operations adhere to strict Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and food safety standards.

Reports To: Maintenance Supervisor
Location: Hackettstown, NJ

Salary: $35 - $50/hr, based on experience

Schedule: Full time but timing varies, mostly weekday hours

In this job, you will be responsible (along with the rest of the maintenance team) for the install, commissioning, upgrade, maintenance, and repair of $12M+ (and growing) of industrial food production equipment and support systems.

Our equipment drives high-volume production, and downtime is highly costly. There is a high degree of responsibility required, you will act with urgency and accuracy to fix things that are broken.

The responsibilities listed below are not exhaustive. As Ancient Crunch scales, the requirements of this position will expand and adapt to reflect the changing realities of our production equipment.

Equipment Maintenance & Repair

• Maintain and repair industrial food manufacturing equipment including fryers, ovens, packaging machines, thermal oil burners, conveyor belts, air compressors, boilers, and control systems
• Maintain hydraulic loading dock plates, forklifts, and pallet jacks
• Execute and document Preventive Maintenance (PM) plans, and respond promptly to emergency maintenance needs
• Consult equipment manuals and technical resources to diagnose and resolve issues efficiently
• Partner with approved third‑party vendors when specialized expertise is required

Installations & Modifications

• Lead or support installation and “hooking up” of new equipment
• Implement modifications or upgrades to existing equipment

Management, Organization, and Compliance

• Organize and track tools and materials (e.g., spare parts) used, maintain them in clean and orderly fashion, and ensure full inventory of parts and tools
• Work closely with Production and QA teams to minimize workflow interruptions
• Participate in continuous improvement initiatives related to product safety and quality
• Manage relationships with approved vendor partners for specialized maintenance tasks
• Follow all plant safety, USDA, SQF, and GMP guidelines

Technical Disciplines

The ideal candidate brings experience across as many of the following as possible:

• Welding
• Machining
• Metal fabrication
• Electrical work
• Millwright
• Plumbing
• HVAC
• Compressed air systems
• PLC programming and debugging
• Carpentry
• Forklift operation/rigging

Skills

• Operate with integrity, accuracy, and sound judgment in all activities.
  • There is a lot of expensive and dangerous equipment around. A sober mind and keen awareness for the safety and financial consequences of mistakes is required at all times

• 5+ years of relevant technical experience (see preferred backgrounds below)
• High attention to detail and a strong “mechanical intuition” for how equipment, tools, and systems work
  • Many problems that occur won’t have solutions in the manual. You’ll have to figure out the right way to solve the problem on the fly
• Deep familiarity with a broad range of tools and machine systems (e.g. when do you use a drill vs. an impact driver, what torque settings do you use for what bolts, etc.)
• Ability and concern for the safe operation tools, machines, and equipment
  • Lockout/tag out, PPE, etc.
• Strong communication skills; able to collaborate quickly and effectively across teams and with vendors
• Computer literacy: emails, word docs, excel, etc.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Several years of experience in an industrial food manufacturing facility or similar manufacturing environment (pharmaceutical, cosmetics, power generation, etc.)
• Strong relevant skillset from an adjacent field — auto mechanic, electrician, HVAC technician, welder, machinist, millwright, etc.
• Graduate of a vocational or technical trade…