Root Cause Failure Analysis Specialist

At CF&I Steel, L.P., our strength starts with our people! As a team we collaborate to solve problems, contribute ideas and challenge each other to ensure growth and ultimately success for the business and our employees.

Reporting to the Reliability Manager but working under limited supervision, theRCFA Specialistisresponsibleforleading andfacilitatingstructured root cause failure analysis processes to improve asset health andeliminaterecurring failures across mechanical, electrical and process systems.

This role ensures that failures are not only resolved but fully understood and prevented, linking equipment condition, process performance, and human factors.

TheRCFA Specialist plays a critical rolein strengthening the site’s defect elimination culture by driving rigorous analysis, corrective action discipline, andorganizationallearning. This position works closely with Sr.Mechanical /process and Sr. Electrical/Automation Reliability Engineers, Maintenance, and Operations to sustain along term reliability improvements.

Rocky Mountain Steel Mills is committed to maintaining and promoting a safe, healthy and injury-free environment. It is required for all jobs.

• Lead and facilitate structured Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) investigations for significant, chronic, and high-risk failures, applying formal methodologies (e.g., 5-Why, Cause Mapping, Fault Tree, Apollo, Tap Root) to ensure clear identification of true root causes across equipment, process, and human systems.
• Drive asset health and failure elimination across systems, identifying systemic issues impacting reliability performance, partnering with reliability engineers to link failure modes to mechanical condition, control performance, electrical systems, and process variability, and leading the implementation of sustainable solutions to eliminate recurring failures.
• Lead corrective action management to ensure sustainable reliability improvements, defining, prioritizing, and driving the implementation of corrective and preventive actions, while tracking effectiveness through measurable outcomes, verifying closure, and identifying execution gaps that impact long-term asset performance.
• Analyze failure data to generate actionable reliability insights, leveraging work order history, failure trends, and equipment performance data to identify patterns, prioritize areas for deeper investigation, and support the development and refinement of key reliability KPIs (e.g., MTBF, downtime, cost of failure).
• Establish and govern RCFA program standards and processes, developing clear triggers and ensuring consistent application across departments, while supporting audit readiness and driving continuous improvement through reliability maturity assessments.
• Lead training and capability development in RCFA methodologies across Maintenance, Operations, and Engineering, coaching teams to strengthen problem-solving skills and mindset, while fostering and sustaining a culture of defect elimination across the site.
• Drive continuous improvement and knowledge capture within the RCFA and reliability program, developing and maintaining a centralized knowledge base of failure modes and lessons learned, proactively sharing insights across the organization to prevent repeat failures, and ensuring incorporation of learnings into maintenance strategies, standards, and engineering practices.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering,(Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial) or related engineering degree required
• 7+ yrsof experience in maintenance, reliability, or engineering in heavy industry
• Reliability principles (RCM, defect elimination, asset health concepts)
• Interaction between process conditions and equipment performance
• Formal RCFA training…