Equipment Reliability Engineer

Company Description At Link Snacks, we show up hungry, roll up our sleeves, plaid or otherwise, and dive straight into the hard work. We don’t hide from challenges; we hunt them down. We push harder, move faster, and take the kinds of big swings that built this business in the North Woods of Wisconsin four decades ago.

We’re everyday people who deliver extraordinary results. Innovation, creativity, and urgency aren’t buzzwords, they’re expectations. And just like the real protein snacks we make across our global house of brands:
Jack Link’s, Lorissa’s Organic Snacks, Golden Island, BiFi, Peperami and KOOEE! to name a few, there’s nothing artificial about us. What you see is exactly what you get: humble, gritty, passionate people who show up every day ready to not just be a participate in the meat snack industry that the Link Family created, but to move faster, innovate harder and keep raising the bar so high, the rest of the world needs a ladder just to see it.

Dominating this space across the world takes a team. A team that runs together, succeeds together, and celebrates together. A team that’s full of relentless energy and spirit that can only be fueled by one thing: a fist full of our delicious meat snacks.

Real Meat Protein. Real People. Real Results. THAT is Link Snacks.

Job Description The Reliability Engineer is responsible for improving the reliability, maintainability, operational performance, food safety integrity, and lifecycle management of manufacturing assets across the facility. This role serves as the technical leader for failure elimination, asset health management, equipment-based food safety risk reduction, startup excellence, preventive maintenance optimization, and reliability improvement initiatives.

The Reliability Engineer works closely with Operations, Maintenance, Controls, FSQ, Sanitation, and Operational Excellence to improve asset performance, reduce losses, eliminate repeat failures, and increase operational stability.

The Reliability Engineer is expected to spend significant time in production areas identifying equipment losses, validating root causes, and implementing sustainable corrective actions.

Primary Responsibilities Asset Reliability Management Lead reliability efforts for critical manufacturing assets

Ovens

Packaging Equipment Material Handling Systems Detection Systems Utilities Responsibilities  include:

Asset health monitoring

Reliability strategy development

Failure trend analysis

Life cycle management

Equipment criticality assessments

Failure Elimination Lead structured problem-solving for recurring failures.

Responsible for:

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Repeat failure investigations

Corrective action implementation

Expected Results:

Reduced downtime

Increased MTBFElimination of repeat failures

Asset Criticality Program Develop and maintain criticality rankings for all plant assets.

Identify:

Critical Assets Equipment impacting:

Food safety

Throughput Safety Regulatory  compliance

Develop risk-based maintenance strategies based on asset criticality.

Preventive Maintenance Optimization Evaluate and improve PM effectiveness.

Responsibilities include:

PM optimizationPM frequency evaluation

Condition-based maintenance development

Predictive maintenance deployment

Ensure PMs address actual failure modes.

Food Safety & Quality Reliability Partner with FSQ to develop and maintain an Equipment-Based FSQ Prevention Program. Focus Areas:

Product Contact Equipment Belts Conveyors Rollers Guides Packaging  Systems Seal systems

Vacuum systems

Detection systems

Environmental Systems Refrigeration Air  handling

Condensation control

Develop controls that prevent food safety risks from equipment deterioration.

Startup Excellence Program Support and…