Director of Maintenance & Engineering

Northern U.S. | Large, Capital-Intensive Manufacturing Operation An established, multi-site manufacturer with a century-long operating legacy is seeking a hands-on leader to unify Maintenance and Engineering under one clear direction. This is not a desk-only role. The right person is comfortable in steel-toe boots, guiding teams on the floor, and then stepping into strategy conversations about reliability, investment, and long-term asset health. You will inherit capable supervisors and experienced tradespeople. The mandate is alignment, accountability, and fewer surprises. What You’ll Own Lead maintenance and engineering teams across a 24/7 operation Improve uptime through preventive, predictive, and reliability-based practices Coordinate outages, repairs, and priorities with Operations leadership Drive capital projects from scope and ROI justification through startup Manage contractors, vendors, budgets, and long-term asset planning Strengthen safety culture and labor relationships Serve as the technical voice in plant-wide decision making What Makes This Role Interesting Significant equipment and infrastructure footprint with ongoing investment Leadership influence across operations, finance, and safety Blend of tactical problem solving and strategic planning Opportunity to leave a visible reliability legacy rather than just maintain the status quo Background That Translates Well 10+ years in maintenance and/or engineering leadership in heavy manufacturing Experience supporting continuous operations and planned outages Capital project leadership and budget ownership Mechanical, electrical, and process systems familiarity Comfort leading experienced hourly teams Paper, pulp, metals, chemicals, power generation, or similarly asset-intensive environments tend to adapt quickly here. This is best suited for a leader who believes reliability is built daily, not during crises, and who enjoys turning “we’ve always done it this way” into measurable improvement.