Divisional Maintenance Excellence Manager

From a small family business to a multi-billion-dollar global company, Sonoco has been changing the face of products and packaging since 1899 — all while keeping the heart of “People Build Businesses” alive.

Our talented people are at the core of our growth, constantly reinventing the Sonoco wheel with brilliant solutions every year. Today we are a world leader in global packaging solutions with diversified operations in over 34 countries. We're extremely proud of our portfolio of brands, our achievements in sustainability and industrialization and the groundbreaking work accomplished by our people.

The Division Maintenance Excellence & Reliability Leader is responsible for establishing, leading, and continuously improving maintenance and reliability strategies across a division representing approximately $2 billion in annual revenue and more than 50 manufacturing facilities. This role serves as the division's Maintenance Excellence Champion, providing strategic leadership, governance, and technical direction to improve asset reliability, maintenance productivity, equipment performance, and overall manufacturing effectiveness. 

Will develop and deploy standardized maintenance and reliability processes, drive continuous improvement initiatives, and build organizational capability across the maintenance and engineering functions. This position plays a critical role in developing current and future Reliability Engineers, Plant Engineers, and Maintenance Managers while partnering with mill leadership teams to improve operational performance and asset utilization.  The role will manage multiple Reliability Engineers to be deployed as Plant Engineers/Maintenance Managers.

What you will be doing:

Maintenance and Reliability Strategy

• Develop and lead the division-wide maintenance and reliability strategy to support business objectives, operational excellence, and long-term asset sustainability.
• Establish and maintain standardized maintenance excellence processes, systems, and best practices across all manufacturing facilities.
• Drive implementation of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), predictive maintenance (PdM), preventive maintenance (PM), root cause analysis (RCA), and asset management programs.
• Champion a culture of reliability and continuous improvement throughout the division.

Equipment Reliability Improvement

• Lead initiatives to improve equipment reliability, asset performance, uptime, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) across the division.
• Analyze reliability performance metrics, identify improvement opportunities, and develop action plans to reduce failures and production losses.
• Partner with operations, engineering, and plant leadership teams to improve critical asset performance and eliminate systemic equipment issues.
• Ensure consistent application of reliability engineering principles and failure elimination methodologies.

Maintenance Productivity and Performance

• Establish division-wide maintenance KPIs, benchmarks, and performance expectations.
• Drive improvements in maintenance productivity, work execution, planning and scheduling effectiveness, wrench time, and maintenance cost performance.
• Lead optimization of maintenance work management processes, CMMS utilization, and workforce effectiveness.
• Support facilities in achieving operational reliability targets while balancing cost, risk, and asset life cycle considerations.

Organizational Capability and Talent Development

• Serve as the functional leader for Reliability Engineers, Plant Engineers, and Maintenance Managers across the division.
• Develop succession plans, competency models, career progression frameworks, and training programs for maintenance and reliability professionals.
• Coach, mentor, and develop technical leaders to strengthen division-wide maintenance and engineering capabilities.
• Establish communities of practice and knowledge-sharing forums to accelerate adoption of best practices.

Capital and Asset Management

• Collaborate with engineering and operational leadership to ensure reliability and maintainability are incorporated into capital projects and equipment design standards.
• Support long-range asset management planning and replacement strategies for critical equipment.
• Provide technical guidance on major equipment failures, outage planning, and reliability improvement investments.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and maintenance tools that enhance operational performance and asset reliability.

Financial and Business Impact

• Partner with plant and division leadership to improve financial performance through enhanced reliability, increased productivity, reduced downtime, and optimized maintenance spending.
• Develop business cases and prioritize reliability improvement opportunities to maximize return on investment.
• Monitor maintenance and reliability performance across the division and communicate results to senior leadership.

Safety and Compliance

• Promote an uncompromising commitment to safety, environmental stewardship, and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure maintenance and reliability programs support safe operating conditions and effective risk management.
• Support implementation of maintenance standards that align with company safety and operational requirements.

This position will be in Hartsville, SC with some consideration for remote work depending on skillset and location.

We'd love to hear from you if:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering or a related technical field required.
• Advanced degree or professional certifications in Reliability Engineering, Maintenance Management, or Asset Management preferred.

Experience

• Progressive maintenance, reliability, engineering, or manufacturing leadership experience within heavy industry, pulp and paper, forest products, chemicals, metals, or similar asset-intensive environments.
• Demonstrated success leading multi-site maintenance and reliability improvement initiatives across large manufacturing organizations.
• Experience developing maintenance excellence systems, reliability programs, and organizational capability.
• Proven ability to influence and drive results through plant leadership teams and cross-functional stakeholders.

Technical Competencies

• Extensive knowledge of maintenance and reliability best practices, including preventive, predictive, and condition-based maintenance methodologies.
• Strong understanding of reliability engineering, asset management, root cause analysis, and failure elimination processes.
• Experience with CMMS platforms, maintenance planning and scheduling systems, and reliability analytics.
• Working knowledge of rotating equipment, power systems, process equipment, utilities, and manufacturing operations.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business objectives into actionable reliability and maintenance strategies.
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and talent development capabilities.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to work effectively across all organizational levels.
• Demonstrated ability to lead change, drive standardization, and achieve sustainable operational improvements.

Additional Information

• Travel requirements include our paper mill, recycling and converting operations with 50%-75% likely travel.
• Additional duties as assigned
  

Compensation:   

This is a progression position depending on experience and business needs. The annual base salary range for this role is as follows:

• Manager-Divisional Maintenance Excellence - $138,320 to $155,610 plus an annual target bonus of 12.5% of base salary.
• Senior Manager -Divisional Maintenance Excellence- $160,720- $180,810 plus an annual target bonus of 14.5% of base salary.

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We are an equal opportunity employer, and we strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any legally protected characteristic.