Sr. Maintenance Manager

The company is driven by its values of caring for the people, animals, and planet it touches across its business. By providing nourishing products, implementing stringent care standards for animals, and stewarding efficient operations and responsible packaging, fairlife, LLC puts a focus each day on making a positive impact for all.   

The construction of fairlife's manufacturing facility in Webster, NY is underway. This state-of-the-art, 750k sq ft, greenfield plant is expected to be operational in late 2025 and will lay the foundation for fairlife's next phase of growth as the leading dairy nutrition provider. While coupling the industry’s latest technologies and fairlife's operational excellence to build this world-class facility, fairlife plans to hire 250 new employees and bring in approximately 5 million lbs. of milk a day, with room to grow over the coming years. 

job purpose:     The Sr. Maintenance Manager for the new Webster, NY plant is responsible for overseeing the facility and equipment maintenance including all utilities, process and packaging equipment, parts procurement, planning, automation, and department budget. This critical leadership role has ownership over developing and managing the preventative maintenance program, plant overhaul program, and strategic approach to maintenance excellence for a state of the art, greenfield plant, currently under construction. The individual will possess a strong technical background and proven history to lead a talented group of supervisors, mechanics, ICTs, planners, and parts procurement.   

responsibilities 

1.Maintenance Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop all maintenance staff and hourly personnel. 

• Identify skill gaps and create targeted training plans. 

• Provide leadership and technical development for mechanics and ICTs to strengthen departmental capability. 

• Set performance expectations and drive accountability across the team. 

2.Maintenance Execution & Reliability Management

• Plan, schedule, and execute all maintenance activities: preventative, predictive, breakdown, and overhaul. 

• Maintain and repair all production, process, packaging, building, and utilities equipment (boilers, chillers, cooling towers, HVAC, air compressors, wastewater systems, etc.). 

• Develop and optimize the preventative maintenance program, including task details and timetocomplete standards. 

• Implement and manage a predictive maintenance program using tools such as vibration analysis, ultrasonic testing, thermal imaging, and tribology. 

• Maintain calibration of critical regulatory instruments. 

• Partner with engineering, OEMs, and suppliers for equipment redesigns, performance improvements, and expert maintenance input on new equipment specifications. 

3.Systems, Documentation & Regulatory Compliance

• Own and manage all aspects of the plant’s CMMS and calibration systems (tracking, documentation, planning). 

• Ensure documentation of all schematics, diagrams, and PLC programming changes to maintain current plant records. 

• Manage regulatory utility requirements: backflow prevention, boiler inspections, transformer oil sampling, steam trap audits, and chemical record retention. 

• Perform risk assessments of critical spare parts and maintain proper inventory levels. 

4.Budgeting,Purchasing& Vendor Management 

• Build and manage the department budget, using data analysis to optimize spend (part turns, obsolete parts, min/max levels). 

• Handle purchasing and purchase order management; understand GL accounts and work closely with the Plant Controller/Finance. 

• Source, negotiate with, and manage vendors for projects, tasks, and emergency repairs. 

• Lead weekly CI/strategic campaign meetings to prioritize and execute critical tasks and improvement projects. 

5.CrossFunctionalCollaboration & Continuous Improvement 

• Work closely with other departments on RCA/CA activities, ensuring comprehensive documentation in the Quality Control system. 

• Develop metrics, KPIs, and performance measures focused on equipment reliability, BDA, planned downtime, and maintenance cost performance. 

• Collaborate with engineering and operations to support equipment improvements and capital planning. 

• Drive a culture of continuous improvement through structured problemsolving and datadriven decision making. 

 skills/qualifications required: 

1.Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or relevant experience required. 

• Minimum of 10 years of maintenance leadership experience or equivalent role directly aligned with the responsibilities of this position. 

• Experience in dairy, brewing, pharmaceutical, or food manufacturing preferred. 

• Aseptic processing and high-speed bottling experience is a plus. 

• Experience with developing maintenance best practices and standards. 

• Demonstrated success establishing and applying TPM and reliability-based principles to create both short- and longterm value. 

2.Technical & Operational Expertise

• Strong understanding of CMMS systems, work order execution, and preventative maintenance programs. 

• Skilled in examining and troubleshooting mechanical components to improve reliability. 

• Working knowledge of controls, instrumentation, and industrial automation. 

• Proven understanding of GMPs and ability to recognize and mitigate food safety risks. 

• Knowledge of budgeting, cost estimating, and fiscal management practices. 

3.Leadership & People Development

• Proven ability to lead teams with trust, accountability, and integrity. 

• Ability to assess training and development needs and manage performance effectively. 

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work with diverse teams across functions. 

• Experience building high-performing maintenance teams in a fast-paced environment. 

4.Communication, Decision-Making & Professional Skills

• Strong verbal and written communication skills. 

• Ability to make sound administrative and procedural decisions, including handling confidential or sensitive matters. 

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial setting. 

• Ability to collaborate cross functionally and influence without authority. 

position location: Webster, NY 

reports to: Director of Engineering 

travel requirements: Up to 10%