Maintenance and Reliability Planning Manager

Position Description
Position Summary
The Maintenance and Reliability Planning Manager leads the Maintenance Planning Group responsible for all work planning, scheduling, preventive and predictive maintenance programs, and reliability improvement activities that support safe, efficient, and reliable plant operations.
This role owns the end-to-end maintenance planning process, develops the teams capabilities, drives the growth of predictive, preventive and condition-based maintenance, leveraging data analytics (MTBF, MTTR, OEE, failure trends and others) to continuously improve equipment performance.
The Manager is accountable for ensuring high-quality work plans, optimized schedules that minimize production disruption, rigorous PM task lists, a robust PM audit program, accurate SAP master data, spare parts readiness, and strong cross-functional collaboration with Operations, Maintenance Execution, Reliability Engineering, Quality & Food Safety, and Engineering. This is a hands-on leadership role that balances strategic reliability growth with day-to-day planning excellence. This position is critical to plant reliability, cost control, and production attainment. The successful candidate will be a systems thinker who can elevate the planning function from transactional work order processing to a true strategic reliability engine.

Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Capability Development
Lead, coach, develop, and performance-manage the maintenance planning team to ensure day-to-day work order preparation, line-centric scheduling, and PM/weekend work is executed and continually improved.
Build team capability through structured training, mentoring, skills matrices, cross-training, and stretch assignments so every team member becomes proficient in advanced planning, data analysis, and continuous improvement.
Set clear expectations, conduct regular 1:1s and foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning and execution excellence.
Own all activities of the Maintenance and Reliability Planning Group and serve as the primary escalation point and strategic interface for planning-related decisions.
Drive a proactive maintenance culture targeting high planned work percentages and continuous reduction of unplanned downtime.
Own master data integrity for equipment BOMs, task lists, measuring points, and maintenance plans in SAP.

Maintenance Planning & Scheduling Excellence
Own and continuously improve the Work Order Management process from notification through planning, kitting, scheduling, execution feedback, and close-out.
Ensure high-quality, detailed job plans/task lists that include accurate labor estimates, materials/parts lists, tools, safety requirements (including LOTO), procedures, and sequenced steps.
Direct the development, optimization, and long-range scheduling of all Preventive & Predictive Maintenance and corrective work, including major weekend and outage work packages.
Lead weekly planning and scheduling meetings with Operations and Maintenance leadership to produce a stable, prioritized, and resource-balanced schedule that protects production while maximizing wrench time.
Drive schedule compliance, planned work percentage, and backlog health metrics to world-class levels.

PM Program Development, Rigor & Audit
Oversee, design, and continuously refine rigorous, equipment-specific PM task lists based on OEM recommendations, failure history, Reliability Maintenance principles, and plant experience.
Develop and implement a formal PM Audit Program that regularly works with the shift supervisors to verify work accuracy, relevance, completeness, and execution quality; drive corrective actions and task list updates.
Migrate appropriate time-based PMs toward condition-based and predictive strategies where data and technology support it.

Machine Analytics, Predictive Maintenance & Reliability Growth
Lead the analysis of equipment performance data including Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), failure modes, and downtime Pareto to identify bad actors and improvement opportunities.
Grow the plants predictive maintenance capability through vibration, thermography, oil analysis, ultrasound, and other condition monitoring technologies; integrate findings into planning and scheduling.
Use Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and root cause analysis (RCA) to specifically target downtime reasons and continuously optimize PM plans.
Use Power BI dashboards and advanced Excel models that provide real-time and historical visibility into planning KPIs, equipment health, and resource utilization for leadership decision-making and department optimization.

Technical Expertise Automation, Parts & Systems
Demonstrate strong understanding of automation machinery, packaging equipment, process systems, and plant utilities common in food manufacturing.
Ability to identify, and specify critical spare parts, including the creation and maintenance of accurate BOMs.
Experience with SAP or equivalent Maintenance planning software, Champion Continuous Improvement (CI), 5S, Lean, and Reliability Maintenance principles within planning processes.

Safety, Food Safety, Compliance & Continuous Improvement
Ensure every job plan and schedule embeds People Safety and Food Safety requirements (LOTO, confined space, hot work, GMP).
Drive a zero-incident mindset within the planning group and support plant safety and food safety KPIs.
Support CAPA, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance related to maintenance documentation and equipment integrity.
Collaborate with Quality & Food Safety, Engineering, and Operations to ensure maintenance activities protect product quality and brand integrity.
Manage planning-related costs, spare parts inventory health, and contribute to maintenance budget forecasting and cost reduction initiatives.     

Skills Required Technical Skills (Must Have)
Expert-level proficiency in SAP Plant Maintenance (or equivalent enterprise CMMS) work order management, task lists, maintenance plans, BOMs, notifications, and reporting.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (PivotTables, Power Query, complex formulas, data modeling) and strong Power BI capability for dashboard analytics.
Deep understanding of reliability metrics and methodologies: MTBF, MTTR, OEE, Planned Maintenance %, Schedule Compliance, Backlog Management, FMEA principles.
Solid working knowledge of automated food processing and packaging machinery; ability to identify specific spare parts and components.
Proficiency reading technical manuals, schematics, and OEM documentation.

Leadership & Soft Skills
Proven ability to lead, motivate, develop, and hold accountable a technical team.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills across Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, and Quality.
Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with a bias for data-driven decisions and continuous improvement.
High attention to detail balanced with ability to prioritize in a fast-paced, 24/7 manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated integrity, safety leadership, and commitment to food safety culture.   

Skills Preferred
Preferred Qualifications
Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP) certification.
Experience implementing or significantly growing predictive/condition-based maintenance programs.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, or formal CI training a plus.
Familiarity with vibration analysis, infrared thermography, oil analysis, or other PdM technologies.         

Experience Required
Minimum 7%2B years progressive experience in industrial maintenance, reliability, or planning within manufacturing (food, beverage, or process industry strongly preferred).
Minimum 3%2B years of direct leadership or supervisory experience managing planners, technicians, or similar roles.
Demonstrated success improving equipment reliability metrics (MTBF, MTTR, OEE) and elevating planned maintenance percentages. 

Education Required
Bachelors degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or related technical field preferred; equivalent combination of education and extensive experience considered.