Maintenance Director

Overview

The Maintenance Director is responsible for leading the strategic development and daily execution of maintenance functions across all Lallemand Baking North America production sites. This position is accountable for plant reliability, the performance of critical systems, and the capability and consistency of maintenance teams. The role partners closely with Plant Managers and Maintenance leaders to implement preventive and predictive maintenance programs, drive cross-site standardization, and align maintenance strategy with long-term operational and commercial goals.

The Maintenance Director balances hands-on technical insight with leadership and system thinking, ensuring that maintenance serves as a true business partner to production.

• Build, lead, and standardize maintenance operations across multiple North American production facilities, ensuring plant equipment reliability and uptime.
• Develop and oversee site-level preventive and predictive maintenance systems, tools, and metrics to drive long-term reliability and cost efficiency.
• Mentor and develop Maintenance Managers and their teams; support performance evaluations, technical growth plans, and site succession readiness.
• Implement and optimize CMMS systems across plants to improve work order flow, spare parts management, equipment history, and reporting.
• Ensure proper maintenance of advanced equipment, including centrifuges, pumps, heat exchangers, screw/piston-type refrigeration systems, boilers, air handling systems, and automated controls (PLCs, mass-flow systems, flowmeters, etc.).
• Lead vendor and service strategy for shared contracts, spare parts, and reliability projects.
• Partner with Plant Managers to plan and manage maintenance budgets and capital projects.
• Ensure alignment with food safety, GMP, and HACCP requirements in all maintenance activities.
• Travel regularly (up to 50%) to assess, coach, and support maintenance operations on site.
• Follow BMS-P-08-02-A01 GMPs and applicable BMS/DC and SITES Procedures and Instructions at all times to ensure product food safety, legality, and quality.
• Ensure that all direct reports comply at all times, considering Food Safety and Health & Safety Standards in all decisions and operations to maintain full compliance.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial Engineering or related technical field required. Engineering degree strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in maintenance leadership roles, ideally in food-grade manufacturing environments.
• Strong experience with CMMS implementation and optimization.
• Deep technical fluency in mechanical systems, automation, instrumentation, and utilities typical in yeast or fermentation-based manufacturing.
• Proficient in AutoCAD, diagram interpretation, PLC programming, and engineering schematics.
• Familiarity with thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and refrigeration theory is preferred.
• Expertise in CMMS platforms, maintenance workflow optimization, and spare parts systems.
• Strategic and cost-conscious, with a proven ability to manage budgets, lead capital projects, and analyze long-term reliability impacts.
• CPR/First Aid and forklift certification preferred (or ability to obtain).

An asset

• Familiarity with startup operations, reorganization of maintenance departments, or plant expansion projects is a plus.

Required

• Strong leadership and people development skills with experience leading multi-site teams and building high-accountability cultures.
• Strong communicator, able to lead in both crisis situations and long-term planning efforts.
• Highly organized and adaptable, with a proactive approach to problem-solving and root cause analysis.
• Comfortable navigating pressure, ambiguity, and high-impact decision-making in a 24/7 production environment.

Required

• Available to travel in between plant sites (50%)

Lallemand is a privately held Canadian company founded in the late 19th century, which develops, produces, and markets microorganisms for various markets. The administrative offices of the parent company are in Montreal, Canada. Today, Lallemand employs more than 5,000 people working in more than 45 countries on 5 continents.

Lallemand Baking offers a range of superior quality baker's yeast – both fresh and dry varieties – and specialty ingredients to meet bakers' needs across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Baking cultures and dough conditioners round out our impressive product range.

The Lallemand baking team's many branches collaborate closely to provide innovative products and efficient services, backed by a skilled technical support team in each region of operations.

Please take note that accommodations will be provided in all parts of the hiring process. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.