Manager- Divisional Maintenance Excellence

From a small family business to a multi-billion-dollar global company, Sonoco has been changing the face of products and packaging since 1899 — all while keeping the heart of “People Build Businesses” alive. Our talented people are at the core of our growth, constantly reinventing the Sonoco wheel with brilliant solutions every year. Today we are a world leader in global packaging solutions with diversified operations in over 34 countries.

We're extremely proud of our portfolio of brands, our achievements in sustainability and industrialization and the groundbreaking work accomplished by our people.

The Division Maintenance Excellence & Reliability Leader is responsible for establishing, leading, and continuously improving maintenance and reliability strategies across a division representing approximately $2 billion in annual revenue and more than 50 manufacturing facilities. This role serves as the division's Maintenance Excellence Champion, providing strategic leadership, governance, and technical direction to improve asset reliability, maintenance productivity, equipment performance, and overall manufacturing effectiveness.

Will develop and deploy standardized maintenance and reliability processes, drive continuous improvement initiatives, and build organizational capability across the maintenance and engineering functions. This position plays a critical role in developing current and future Reliability Engineers, Plant Engineers, and Maintenance Managers while partnering with mill leadership teams to improve operational performance and asset utilization. The role will manage multiple Reliability Engineers to be deployed as Plant Engineers/Maintenance Managers.

Develop and lead the division-wide maintenance and reliability strategy to support business objectives, operational excellence, and long-term asset sustainability. Establish and maintain standardized maintenance excellence processes, systems, and best practices across all manufacturing facilities. Drive implementation of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), predictive maintenance (PdM), preventive maintenance (PM), root cause analysis (RCA), and asset management programs. Champion a culture of reliability and continuous improvement throughout the division.

Lead initiatives to improve equipment reliability, asset performance, uptime, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) across the division. Analyze reliability performance metrics, identify improvement opportunities, and develop action plans to reduce failures and production losses. Partner with operations, engineering, and plant leadership teams to improve critical asset performance and eliminate systemic equipment issues. Ensure consistent application of reliability engineering principles and failure elimination methodologies.

Establish division-wide maintenance KPIs, benchmarks, and performance expectations. Drive improvements in maintenance productivity, work execution, planning and scheduling effectiveness, wrench time, and maintenance cost performance. Lead optimization of maintenance work management processes, CMMS utilization, and workforce effectiveness. Support facilities in achieving operational reliability targets while balancing cost, risk, and asset life cycle considerations.

Serve as the functional leader for Reliability Engineers, Plant Engineers, and Maintenance Managers across the division. Develop succession plans, competency models, career progression frameworks, and training programs for maintenance and reliability professionals. Coach, mentor, and develop technical…