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.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following :

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.