Associate Director Maintenance

Abb Vie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas - immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about Abb Vie, please visit us at  Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Linked In and Tik Tok.

At Abb Vie, we are committed to discovering and delivering innovative medicines and solutions that address serious health challenges and improve lives around the world. Our Westport manufacturing site is a global centre of excellence, combining advanced manufacturing technologies with a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

We are seeking an experienced Associate Director of Maintenance to provide strategic and operational leadership for our maintenance and engineering function. This role is responsible for ensuring the reliability, availability, and compliance of manufacturing and utility equipment while leading a high-performing engineering team.

The successful candidate will drive maintenance excellence, support operational performance, champion continuous improvement initiatives, and ensure compliance with quality, safety, and regulatory requirements.

• Lead and develop the site maintenance function to maximise equipment reliability, performance, and uptime.
• Establish departmental goals, priorities, and performance metrics aligned with site and business objectives.
• Manage preventive and corrective maintenance activities across manufacturing and utility systems.
• Drive maintenance excellence and reliability engineering programmes to improve equipment performance and reduce downtime.
• Lead the planning and execution of engineering and maintenance projects, including equipment upgrades and process improvements.
• Develop, monitor, and manage engineering budgets and capital expenditure projects.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable regulatory, quality, environmental, health, and safety requirements.
• Support internal, corporate, and external regulatory audits and inspections.
• Collaborate closely with Production, Quality, Engineering, and other site functions to optimise manufacturing performance.
• Oversee calibration activities and ensure compliance with maintenance and asset management programmes.
• Manage contractor relationships, negotiate service agreements, and supervise external service providers.
• Lead investigations, root cause analyses, CAPA implementation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership and subject matter expertise on engineering and maintenance-related matters.
• Drive a culture of safety, operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of maintenance and engineering professionals.
• Set performance objectives and support employee development through regular feedback, coaching, and succession planning.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance team environment.
• Contribute to broader talent management initiatives and organisational development activities.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• Minimum 6 years' combined experience within engineering, manufacturing, or maintenance environments.
• Previous leadership experience managing engineering, maintenance, or technical teams.
• Strong knowledge of maintenance systems, reliability engineering, and asset management principles.
• Experience with in a regulated manufacturing environment such as biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, medical device, or similar industries.
• Proven experience managing budgets, projects, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong understanding of GMP, regulatory compliance, and quality systems.

• Professional engineering accreditation or membership of a recognised engineering body.
• Experience implementing Maintenance Excellence Programmes, reliability-centred maintenance, or continuous improvement initiatives.
• Experience supporting regulatory inspections and corporate audits.

• Strong leadership and people management capabilities.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to balance operational priorities and long-term objectives.
• Strong communication and stakeholder…