Maintenance Manager

Vanns Spices is looking for a hands-on Maintenance Manager to lead our maintenance team and drive equipment reliability across our production and packaging operations.

We are a small, growing food manufacturing company operating on a single shift, Monday to Friday, with a maintenance team of three technicians plus this role. This position is critical to our operation and requires someone who can lead, troubleshoot, and build structure within a lean environment.

Technical skills matter, but the ability to lead people and build a positive team culture is just as important.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

You will lead all aspects of maintenance, including:

• Personally troubleshoot, repair, and maintain mechanical, electrical, and controls systems on production equipment.
• Improving preventive maintenance execution and effectiveness
• Reducing unplanned downtime to improve efficiency and increase line capacity
• Leading, coaching, and developing a small maintenance team
• Partnering closely with Production, Quality, and Warehouse teams
• Working with vendors and OEMs to resolve complex issues
• Supporting equipment installations, upgrades, and continuous improvement
• Establishing daily maintenance priorities, responding promptly to breakdowns, and following through until issues are resolved.
• Managing critical spare parts and helping prevent recurring equipment failures.

This is a hands-on leadership role, not an administrative-only position. You will spend at least 50% of your time on the production floor, working alongside technicians, troubleshooting equipment, and supporting daily production needs.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who can bring both technical depth and leadership strength:

• 5–10+ years of industrial maintenance experience
• Experience leading or supervising maintenance teams, including experienced Maintenance Supervisors ready to take the next step.
• Strong troubleshooting skills (mechanical and electrical systems)
• Working knowledge of PLC-controlled equipment and instrumentation
• Experience in improving preventive maintenance and reducing downtime
• Experience working in food manufacturing environments with GMP, SQF, HACCP, or similar food safety systems preferred
• Demonstrated ability to independently diagnose and repair industrial equipment.
• Spanish/English bilingual skills strongly preferred

Who You Are

• A hands-on leader who leads by example on the floor
• Someone who focuses on root cause, not quick fixes
• Comfortable operating in a lean environment and wearing multiple hats
• A strong communicator who can work across departments
• A professional who can build trust, accountability, and a positive team culture
• Dependable, responsive, and accountable, with a strong sense of urgency and commitment to following through

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

• First 30 Days:
  Learn our equipment, processes, and maintenance practices. Build relationships with the team and other departments, and assess the department's strengths, gaps, and equipment reliability challenges.
• 60 Days: Establish clear daily maintenance priorities, strengthen preventive maintenance execution, and identify opportunities to improve technician capabilities and reduce downtime.
• 90 Days: Develop a practical maintenance improvement plan with priorities, measurable KPIs, and actions to improve equipment reliability, PM compliance, and team performance.