The Food Packaging Maintenance Manager oversees the maintenance, reliability, and continuous improvement of all packaging equipment and related systems within a food manufacturing facility.
This role ensures maximum equipment uptime, regulatory compliance, and safe, efficient operations that support production goals. The Maintenance Manager leads a team of technicians and collaborates closely with Production, Quality Assurance, Engineering, and Safety teams.
Key Responsibilities
Equipment & Facility Maintenance
- Oversee preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance of all packaging machinery (e.g., form-fill-seal, labeling, cartoning, case packing, conveyors, checkweighers, metal detectors, robotics).
- Develop, implement, and optimize PM programs to increase equipment reliability and reduce unplanned downtime.
- Troubleshoot mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and automation issues to ensure rapid resolution.
- Coordinate major equipment overhauls, upgrades, and installations with Engineering and OEM suppliers.
Leadership & Team Management
Supervise, train, and mentor a team of maintenance technicians across multiple shifts.Create staffing schedules, assign daily tasks, and manage performance.Foster a culture of safety, accountability, and continuous learning.Compliance & Safety
Ensure all maintenance operations follow food safety regulations (FDA, USDA, SQF, BRC, HACCP) and site-specific GMPs.Maintain proper documentation for audits and inspections.Drive root-cause analyses and corrective actions for equipment-related food safety or quality issues.Planning & Continuous Improvement
Monitor maintenance KPIs (downtime, MTTR, MTBF, spare parts usage, PM compliance).Manage maintenance budget, spare parts inventory, and vendor relationships.Lead reliability improvement initiatives using tools like 5S, TPM, Kaizen, and Lean principles.Collaborate with production to plan downtime for maintenance with minimal impact on operations.Qualifications
Education & Experience
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial Engineering, or related field (preferred); or equivalent technical experience.5+ years of maintenance management experience in food packaging or food manufacturing.Strong background in high-speed automated packaging equipment.Experience working within regulated food safety environments (GMP, HACCP, SQF / BRC).