Reliability and Maintenance Manager at J&J Snack Foods in Vernon, TX

As a leader and innovator in the snack food industry for over 50 years, J&J Snack Foods provides branded snack foods to foodservice and retail supermarket outlets across the U.S. Its products include such icons as SUPERPRETZEL, ICEE, and Dippin’ Dots along with other key brands like LUIGI’S Real Italian Ice, The Funnel Cake Factory Funnel Cakes, and Hola Churros. J&J also has a strong presence in bakery providing cakes, cookies, and pies to some of the largest grocery and convenience retailers in industry. Our company continues to deliver record sales led by a talented team and a commitment to “Fun Served Here”. POSITION SUMMARY: Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Reliability and Maintenance Manager is responsible for leading the plant’s maintenance, engineering, and reliability functions to support safe, efficient, and consistent plant operations. In a snack food manufacturing environment, product quality, safety, cost, and service all depend on reliable equipment performance. This role ensures the plant’s assets are a competitive advantage, not a daily operational risk. The Reliability and Maintenance Manager leads maintenance supervisors and maintenance team functions, with accountability for equipment uptime, asset health, spare parts readiness, and technical problem solving across the plant. This leader is responsible for developing and strengthening proactive, planned, and data-driven reliability programs through effective preventive maintenance, root cause analysis, spare parts management, and full utilization of Redzone. This position partners closely with Operations and cross-functional teams to reduce downtime, improve equipment performance, and support overall plant productivity. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Reliability and Uptime Ownership Owns line uptime, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and overall equipment reliability for the plant. Leads the plant toward a more planned, proactive, and data-driven maintenance culture. Develops and maintains preventive and predictive maintenance programs that improve equipment performance and reduce downtime. Leads root cause analysis and corrective action for recurring equipment issues, chronic losses, and breakdowns. Partners with Production to address recurring downtime and improve day-to-day equipment performance. Maintenance and Engineering Leadership Provides leadership and direction to maintenance supervisors and maintenance technicians. Sets clear expectations for troubleshooting, work planning, and execution. Develops technical capability across the team in electrical, mechanical, controls, refrigeration, and related areas. Oversees contractor management and provides technical leadership for new equipment installations, line modifications, and capital projects. Spare Parts and Asset Management Owns the plant’s spare parts strategy, including inventory accuracy, and critical spare availability. Improves spare parts controls to reduce stockouts, emergency purchases, and excess or obsolete inventory. Implements parts kitting and planning processes to better support scheduled maintenance work. Maintains accurate asset hierarchy, equipment documentation, and maintenance records. Redzone and Data-Driven Execution Uses Redzone to support work order management, PM compliance, downtime data analysis, technician accountability, and maintenance visibility. Ensures Redzone data is accurate, timely, and used to identify trends, prioritize reliability work, and improve equipment performance. Food Safety, Safety and Compliance Ensures maintenance work is completed in compliance with food safety, GMP, quality, safety, and regulatory requirements. Reinforces safe maintenance practices, including Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), contractor safety, and other required safety procedures. Supports ammonia/refrigeration compliance, documentation, inspections, and related maintenance requirements. Maintains audit-ready maintenance records, including PM documentation, work orders, regulatory records, and contractor documentation. Financial and Performance Management Manages the maintenance labor and MRO budget with a focus on cost control, stronger planning, and reduced emergency spend. Supports capital planning, equipment upgrade recommendations, and ROI justification for performance improvement projects. Tracks and improves key maintenance performance metrics, including uptime, equipment-related OEE loss, PM compliance, MTBF, MTTR, planned versus emergency work, spare parts accuracy and availability, maintenance cost per pound/case, safety incidents, and audit findings. Partnership with Support Center Engineering Serves as the main site partner and liaison for Support Center Engineering on capital projects, technical strategy, engineering standards, and enterprise initiatives. Partners with Support Center Engineering on capital project planning, scoping, on-site execution, commissioning and startup of new lines, and major equipment upgrades. Supports process engineering improvements that increase throughput, reduce waste, improve quality, and strengthen equipment performance. Supports the integration of new technologies, automation, controls, and digital tools into the plant. Partners with enterprise technical resources to support complex technical problem solving, long-term asset strategy, infrastructure planning, equipment standards and specifications, and best practice sharing across plants. Ensures corporate initiatives are implemented effectively at the plant level and shares practical site feedback to improve enterprise engineering solutions. Team Leadership Leads Maintenance Supervisors, Reliability/Engineering resources, and Maintenance Technicians. Builds a team culture focused on craftsmanship, urgency, accountability, and pride in equipment condition. Coaches supervisors and team members to plan work proactively instead of only reacting to problems. Develops bench strength, technical skill depth, and leadership capability within the maintenance organization. Performs other duties as assigned by leadership. COMPETENCIES: To perform successfully in this role, the Reliability and Maintenance Manager must be self-motivated, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment. Key competencies include: Strong maintenance, reliability, and engineering leadership skills. Ability to build a proactive, planned, and data-driven maintenance culture. Strong technical troubleshooting and root cause problem-solving skills. Ability to use data, metrics, and maintenance systems to improve equipment performance. Strong understanding of preventive maintenance, spare parts management, and asset reliability. Ability to partner effectively with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Safety, and other cross-functional teams. Strong communication, organization, planning, and follow-up skills. Ability to coach, develop, and build technical capability within maintenance teams. Strong commitment to food safety, GMPs, employee safety, compliance, and audit readiness. Ability to manage budgets, control costs, and support capital improvement recommendations. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field strongly preferred. Five to seven or more years of maintenance and/or engineering leadership experience in CPG or food manufacturing. Strong mechanical, electrical, and controls troubleshooting knowledge. Experience leading maintenance teams in a fast-paced production environment. Experience with CMMS / digital maintenance systems. Redzone experience preferred. Knowledge of food safety, GMPs, and industrial refrigeration systems. Proven ability to build and sustain reliability systems, not just fix equipment. US Salary Pay Range $130,000—$145,000 USD Disclaimer: This position description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the team member. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice. EEO Statement: J&J Snack Foods Corp.is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discriminatory employment actions against, and treatment of, employees and applicants for employment based on actual or perceived Federal, State and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, national origin, ethnicity, alienage, religion or creed, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, genetic disposition or characteristics, disability or veteran's status, sex offenses, prior record of arrest or conviction, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, status as a victim or witness of domestic violence, sex offenses or stalking and unemployment status.