Associate Maintenance Manager

TITLE: Associate Maintenance Manager 

REPORTS TO: Maintenance Manager

LOCATION: Tulare, CA

Looking for a job that can grow into a lifelong career?

At Lactalis USA, we believe in promoting from within and giving our employees meaningful opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Whether you're just starting out or bringing years of experience, we'll provide the tools and support you need to succeed.

Lactalis is the world leader in dairy—a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Every day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together every day.

In the US, we offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone's cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Oui, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Green Mountain Creamery, and Mountain High, along with sour cream and a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun, Gopi, and Arz.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We're building a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone's unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us make an impact. 

From your PASSION to ours   

The Associate Maintenance Manager will be responsible for the safe maintenance, repair or replacement of plant equipment and systems, to ensure maximum production quantity and quality, while supporting the policies, goals, and objectives of the Company. This position will partner with the Maintenance Manager to manage the plant maintenance program based on best practices, with an emphasis on the planning/scheduling of preventive, and predictive maintenance to improve equipment reliability by reducing machine downtime and unscheduled maintenance.

The Associate Maintenance Manager will partner with the Maintenance Manager to manage maintenance employees on assigned shifts to ensure the effective delivery of maintenance services and support production. This includes planning, assigning, and directing work, addressing product and employee complaints and resolving problems. The Associate Maintenance Manager will carry out managerial responsibilities in accordance with Company policies, OSHA regulations and applicable laws. 

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Enforce a safety culture that ensures a safe working environment for all employees that goes beyond complying with state and federal regulations.
• Maintains facility and assets to meet regulatory guidelines (USDA, FDA, OSHA, EPA).
• Develops preventative maintenance procedures that are cost effective and increase the operational life of the equipment. 
• Partners with the Maintenance Manager to evaluate long-term needs in relation to major projects and plant improvements. Assists with the development of the capital program for equipment replacement in the plant. 
• Collaborates with the Maintenance Manager, Plant Engineer and Plant Management Team to utilize equipment to improve employee safety, production quality, equipment reliability, an overall equipment effectiveness.
• Develops corrective actions identified by key maintenance performance indicators to create overall equipment effectiveness.
• Coordinates line maintenance changeovers to meet production schedule and customer requirements.
• Ensures the completion of all paperwork including maintenance records, incident reports and investigations and others assigned by the Maintenance Manager.
• Maintains all technical documentation on PLC's, instrumentation, and equipment (blueprints, manuals, SOP's, maintenance procedures, PM's, inventory/parts purchasing).
• Manage, train, and develop maintenance team members?through mentoring/coaching and coordination of individual developmental plans. Partners with HR on employee relations issues. 
• Communicate directly with the operations and quality teams to coordinate maintenance and repair work in process areas.
• Partners with site leadership team to reduce expenses which include labor, shrink, ingredients, packaging, supplies, inventory, maintenance and overhead to acceptable levels.
• Drives efficiency improvements by engaging maintenance team members, analyzing maintenance schedule of operations, key metrics and processes.
• Manages production downtime reports, determines opportunities and creates an action plan to increase efficiencies.

Requirements

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or related technical field is preferred.
• 5+ years industrial maintenance experience within Dairy, Food, and/or Beverage industry or an equivalent combination of education and experience. 
• 5+ years supervisory experience in a manufacturing environment is required.
• Strong safety background, 6S, LOTO, RCA, Reliability
• Working knowledge of boilers, refrigeration, PLC's electrical, cooling towers, ammonia compressors and packaging equipment. 
• Ability to follow all Sanitation and Quality Policies and report and follow through on any deficiencies. 
• Ability to select, lead, coach, influence, motivate, develop, engage, and retain a team of employees.
• Ability to understand cost containment and budgetary principles.
• Predictive and preventative maintenance experience.
• Results oriented, with a high sense of urgency regarding projects and production.
• Ability to interpret, analyze and present technical information using practical judgment.
• Strong knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP's) and food safety.
• Experience maintaining budgets, 
• Experience working with vendors.
• Strong team player and leader with the ability to work across multiple functions and disciplines.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Solid understanding of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and utility systems including ammonia refrigeration and boiler systems 
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills. 
• Strong organizational skills and proven attention to detail.
• Ability to prioritize and manage projects in a changing, complex environment. 
• Ability to work flexible hours, including weekends and on-call

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally- recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.