Engineering and Maintenance Manager

Description

DwyerOmega | Wolcott, Indiana

Reports to: Plant Manager Department: Engineering and Maintenance | Work arrangement: On-site

Position summary

Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Engineering and Maintenance Manager leads Wolcott’s Maintenance, Manufacturing Engineering, and Machine Design functions. The manager sets priorities across all three teams to improve equipment uptime, expand production capacity, and deliver equipment and process improvements from design through production startup.

As a member of the site leadership team, this manager owns facilities readiness and develops the engineering and capital roadmap for Wolcott’s machining, assembly, and test operations. The manager develops technical staff and builds coverage across shifts.

Essential responsibilities

Team leadership and accountability

• Lead and develop the Maintenance, Manufacturing Engineering, and Machine Design teams. Establish clear responsibilities, daily priorities, shift handoffs, response expectations, and performance standards.

• Build a skills matrix, cross-training plans, and backup coverage for critical equipment and technical responsibilities. Reduce dependence on individual employees and outside service providers.

• Participate in daily tier meetings and the Wolcott Leadership System. Communicate equipment risks, recovery plans, owners, and completion dates; escalate constraints before production commitments are missed.

• Maintain a professional, collaborative team culture through coaching, timely feedback, documented follow-through, and sound judgment.

Equipment reliability and maintenance systems

• Own preventive and predictive maintenance, corrective work, shutdown planning, and backlog management. Use the computerized maintenance management system to schedule work and capture complete equipment history.

• Prioritize assets by safety, quality, and production criticality. Establish effective maintenance plans, critical spare parts, service support, and contingency plans for bottleneck equipment.

• Lead structured root cause analysis for recurring failures and verify that corrective actions prevent recurrence. Coordinate recovery and restart readiness with Operations and Quality.

• Use downtime and condition data to improve uptime, mean time between failures, mean time to repair, and planned maintenance execution. Review recurring losses and overdue work with the team.

Machine Design

• Lead the Machine Design team and prioritize custom equipment, fixture, tooling, and automation projects. Review mechanical designs and controls requirements with the team. Oversee build and commissioning, and ensure Maintenance receives current drawings, equipment programs, and troubleshooting documentation at handoff.

Manufacturing engineering and site growth

• Develop and maintain a multiyear engineering roadmap aligned with demand, product mix, capacity constraints, and the site’s strategic direction. Convert priorities into scoped projects with owners, costs, benefits, and milestones.

• Lead improvements to CNC machining, assembly, fixtures, tooling, testing, workstations, and material presentation. Apply cycle-time analysis, line balancing, setup reduction, and ergonomic design to increase sustainable output.

• Identify and implement practical automation, including assembly and fastening systems, dispensing, inspection, testing, and material handling where justified by safety, quality, capacity, or financial return.

• Advance machine monitoring, including Factbird, in coordination with IT and Operations. Establish reliable data collection and use equipment losses to direct engineering and maintenance actions.

• Partner with Corporate Engineering, Quality, and Operations on product introductions, process changes, and manufacturing transfers. Confirm equipment capability, process documentation, training, and production readiness before handoff.

• Maintain accessible technical documentation, drawings, equipment programs and backups, settings, and work instructions under appropriate change control.

Capital execution and financial ownership

• Own assigned capital projects from business case through installation, commissioning, and production acceptance. Develop capacity assumptions, specifications, vendor comparisons, budgets, schedules, and return-on-investment calculations.

• Define acceptance criteria before purchase, including throughput, quality, safety, maintainability, and training. Coordinate installation to minimize production disruption and verify performance under actual operating conditions.

• Manage maintenance spending, service contracts, and project budgets within approved authority. Validate realized savings and capacity improvements with Finance and Operations after implementation.

Facilities and safe work execution

• Maintain building systems, utilities, and supporting infrastructure required for reliable operations, including compressed air, electrical distribution, HVAC, and production support systems.

• Integrate equipment guarding, energy isolation, contractor controls, and safe maintenance practices into work planning and equipment changes. Partner with EHS on risk assessments and assigned compliance responsibilities.

• Coordinate qualified internal and external resources for specialized work, inspections, and required certifications. Maintain backup service coverage and business continuity plans for critical utilities and equipment.

Cross functional partnership

Partner closely with Operations, Quality, Materials, EHS, Finance, IT, and Corporate Engineering. Operations owns daily production execution; this role owns the equipment reliability and engineering actions needed to support it. Prioritize work with the Plant Manager and escalate resource or schedule conflicts with a recommended path forward.

Requirements

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, or industrial engineering, or an equivalent combination of technical education and substantial relevant manufacturing experience.

• Seven or more years of progressive experience in manufacturing engineering, maintenance, or equipment reliability, including at least three years leading technical employees or a manufacturing technical function.

• Demonstrated success improving equipment reliability and manufacturing productivity in an environment with machining, assembly, or automated production equipment.

• Experience delivering capital equipment or process improvement projects from justification through startup, with measurable results in capacity, quality, cost, or uptime.

• Experience leading technical teams and overseeing the design, modification, or commissioning of custom manufacturing equipment, fixtures, or automation.

• Working knowledge of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and controls systems; ability to guide troubleshooting, evaluate technical solutions, and engage specialists appropriately.

• Experience with maintenance management systems, preventive maintenance planning, root cause analysis, Lean methods, and technical documentation.

• Ability to develop employees, manage competing priorities, communicate clearly across shifts and functions, and hold teams and vendors accountable for commitments.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with CNC machining, acrylic or plastics machining, precision assembly, instrumentation, or pressure and leak testing.

• Experience with PLC-controlled equipment, automation integration, CAD, fixture design, machine monitoring, or manufacturing data systems.

• Experience building maintenance and engineering systems during a period of growth, equipment modernization, or manufacturing transfers.

Work environment and availability

This is an on-site leadership role with regular time on the manufacturing floor and support across operating shifts. Occasional off-shift or weekend support is required for critical equipment events, planned shutdowns, and installations. Follow site PPE and safe work requirements. Occasional travel may be needed for suppliers, equipment acceptance, or other company locations.