Director of Maintenance
Cox Farms - spanning the BrightFarms and Mucci brands
Cox Farms is on a mission to revolutionize how fresh produce is grown. Across our BrightFarms and Mucci brands, we're a national leader in controlled-environment agriculture, growing smarter with less space, no pesticides, and environmental control. Our operations span Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Kingsville, Ontario (Canada), delivering fresh product to thousands of retail stores across North America.
The Role
This is a critical, network-defining hire. We need a top-tier maintenance leader who can unify and elevate an already-established maintenance organization - bringing site-level teams across BrightFarms and Mucci under one strategy, one set of standards, and one functional leadership structure, while building what's still missing (systems, career paths, capital planning) from the ground up.
What You'll Own
Strategy & Network Build
- Unify and elevate the maintenance function across our multi-site network - bringing existing site teams under one strategy, one set of standards, and one organizational design.
- Own and drive a network-wide asset management strategy, including equipment lifecycle planning and long-term capital replacement roadmaps.
- Design and stand-up preventive, predictive, and reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) programs network-wide.
Team & Talent
- Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing maintenance organization - this includes designing the org structure itself, not just the people in it.
- Design and drive career ladders and technical training programs that build internal capability and a real growth path for technicians.
Systems & Compliance
- Own CMMS implementation and adoption network-wide, including work order discipline, PM scheduling, and asset documentation.
- Develop, implement, and drive KPIs - downtime, maintenance cost, schedule compliance, spares inventory - and hold the organization accountable to them.
- Ensure all maintenance activity meets EHS and food safety/quality (FSQ) compliance standards.
- Lead emergency response for critical equipment failures across the network.
Reliability & Operations
- Direct all maintenance operations - mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls, facilities, and utilities - across systems including HVAC, climate control, irrigation, lighting, water treatment, and pumps.
- Drive OEE and asset uptime, and lead root cause analysis and corrective action for major equipment failures.
- Champion Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, and continuous improvement initiatives to eliminate recurring failures at the source.
Financial & Capital
- Own annual maintenance opex and capital budgets; partner with internal and external engineering teams on capital project development and execution.
- Build and standardize a network-wide spare parts and inventory strategy that protects uptime while controlling cost.
What Success Looks Like - First 12 Months
- CMMS live and adopted network-wide, with accurate PM scheduling and work order discipline.
- A documented network-wide maintenance strategy and standard work rolled out across all sites.
- Measurable reduction in unplanned downtime / improvement in OEE [set target once baseline is known]
- Org design finalized and existing talent assessed across all sites, with a clear, documented plan for closing any capability gaps.
- A 3-5 year capital replacement roadmap built and aligned with leadership.
- Site maintenance teams unified under one set of standards, with a clear, agreed-upon path toward solid-line reporting as the function matures.
- Establish the foundation for future system and process governance across the network (ISO, Lean Production Systems, etc)
Travel
Regular travel across the network required, estimated 50-60%, spanning Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Kingsville, Ontario (Canada) - heavier during the initial build phase as programs and standards are stood up on-site.
What You Bring
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, or Manufacturing Engineering, or equivalent experience.
- 10+ years of progressive maintenance leadership in manufacturing.
- Has led a maintenance function through a multi-site build-out, greenfield stand-up, or significant scale-up - not just steady-state operation of an existing program. This is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.
- Experience leading maintenance in 24/7 food manufacturing; controlled-environment agriculture or greenhouse experience strongly preferred.
- Track record owning capital project execution and reliability programs (RCM, TPM).
- Hands-on CMMS/EAM implementation experience - you've stood one up, not just used one.
- Strong controls/automation background (PLC, SCADA, or BMS systems).
- Proven ability to recruit, build, and lead a team from the ground up in a fast-growing environment.