Maintenance 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 paperboard and paper-based packaging manufacturer seeking a Maintenance Manager in Omaha, NE. This is an opportunity to lead maintenance in a large, impressive folding carton facility that supports the food industry. The plant is well‑run, disciplined, and has strong accountability in place. It is also a strong learning and growth platform, with enough scale to develop leaders while still offering room to make improvements.

The Maintenance Manager will lead a tenured maintenance team, support repair and maintenance activity across manufacturing equipment and facility infrastructure, and help minimize production downtime through strong planning, prioritization, and team leadership.

You’ll lead maintenance operations with a focus on team leadership, equipment reliability, repair planning, production support, and safe quality food practices.

Key areas of focus include:

• Manage repair and maintenance of manufacturing facilities and equipment
• Lead maintenance activity across mechanical and electronic equipment, tools, and instruments
• Support installation, repair, and maintenance of manufacturing facility infrastructure
• Plan, prioritize, and schedule repair and maintenance work to minimize downtime and disruptions
• Lead and develop experienced maintenance professionals, supervisors, and skilled trades employees
• Support hiring, training, development, performance management, and accountability within the team
• Manage departmental plans and priorities to meet short‑term operational needs
• Help resolve technical, operational, and scheduling issues
• Serve as a technical and leadership resource for the maintenance department
• Support preventive and predictive maintenance programs through CMMS
• Develop and administer schedules and performance requirements
• Participate in meetings with internal and external representatives
• Follow plant rules, processes, hygiene, allergen, and SQF procedures
• Support SQF root cause and corrective action activity as required
• Report potentially unsafe food safety or SQF conditions through the proper channels

You are a strong maintenance leader who can take a good team and continue to improve it.

You may be a career maintenance professional who has worked up through the ranks and can troubleshoot side by side with mechanics, or a department manager with maintenance and engineering exposure, mechanical aptitude, and strong leadership ability.

You would do well here if you are hands‑on, accountable, comfortable leading skilled trades, and able to bring structure, coaching, and follow‑through to a tenured maintenance group.

• 5–7 years of maintenance experience in manufacturing or a similar industrial environment
• 3+ years of leadership experience overseeing maintenance teams or skilled trades
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field is a plus
• Equivalent work experience accepted in lieu of degree
• Strong working knowledge of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems
• Experience developing and managing preventive and predictive maintenance programs using a CMMS
• Paper equipment experience is a plus, but not required
• Strong department management skills
• Ability to troubleshoot and support mechanics when needed
• Ability to lead a tenured maintenance team and drive improvements
• Experience supporting food industry or SQF-related procedures preferred

This role matters because maintenance plays a direct role in uptime, production performance, food safety, and overall plant execution. The Omaha facility is large, impressive, and in a good place, but the team needs the right leader to continue building on that foundation. This is a strong opportunity for a Maintenance Manager who wants to lead a stable team, support a high‑volume operation, and make meaningful improvements in a strong plant environment.