Maintenance Supervisor (Meat)

A growing U.S.-based RTE (Ready-to-Eat) meat processing operation is seeking an experienced Maintenance Supervisor to lead the day-to-day maintenance function within a high-volume food manufacturing environment.

The Maintenance Supervisor will be responsible for supervising maintenance personnel, coordinating preventative and reactive maintenance activities, supporting production uptime and ensuring equipment is maintained to the highest standards of food safety, sanitation, reliability and employee safety.

This role will work closely with Production, Sanitation, Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Engineering to ensure reliable operation of processing, cooking, chilling, packaging, refrigeration and facility systems.

The successful candidate will be a hands-on leader with strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting skills and experience working in a fast-paced RTE, meat, poultry or food-processing environment.

Key Responsibilities

Maintenance Supervision

• Supervise and coordinate the daily activities of maintenance technicians and mechanics.
• Assign work orders and prioritize maintenance activities based on production requirements and equipment criticality.
• Provide hands-on technical support during equipment breakdowns.
• Ensure adequate maintenance coverage across assigned shifts.
• Monitor technician performance, productivity and work quality.
• Conduct shift handovers and ensure outstanding maintenance issues are clearly communicated.
• Escalate significant equipment, safety or production issues to the Maintenance Manager.
• Support training, coaching and development of maintenance personnel.

Preventative & Predictive Maintenance

• Execute the plant's preventative-maintenance program.
• Ensure PM work orders are completed accurately and on schedule.
• Inspect equipment and identify potential failures before they impact production.
• Support predictive-maintenance activities and equipment-condition monitoring.
• Review recurring equipment failures and participate in root-cause analysis.
• Recommend improvements to PM schedules and maintenance procedures.
• Maintain accurate equipment and maintenance records within the CMMS.

RTE Processing & Packaging Equipment

Support maintenance across equipment and systems including:

• Meat processing and preparation equipment.
• Grinders, slicers, mixers and portioning equipment.
• Cookers, ovens, smokehouses and thermal-processing equipment.
• Spiral freezers, chillers and cooling systems.
• Conveyors and material-handling systems.
• Vacuum packaging and modified-atmosphere packaging equipment.
• Tray sealers, form-fill-seal and other packaging equipment.
• Labeling, coding and inspection equipment.
• Metal detectors and checkweighers.
• Pumps, motors, gearboxes and drives.
• Pneumatic and hydraulic systems.
• PLCs, sensors, VFDs and automated controls.
• Refrigeration and HVAC systems.
• Boilers, steam and compressed-air systems.
• Water, wastewater and other plant utilities.

Production Support & Reliability

• Respond quickly to equipment breakdowns and production interruptions.
• Diagnose mechanical, electrical and controls-related failures.
• Coordinate repairs to minimize production downtime.
• Work closely with Production Supervisors to prioritize maintenance requirements.
• Coordinate planned maintenance around production and sanitation schedules.
• Monitor equipment performance and identify reliability issues.
• Participate in root-cause analysis and corrective-action activities.
• Recommend equipment improvements and modifications to improve reliability.
• Support equipment start-up and line changeovers where required.

Food Safety & Sanitation

RTE operations require an exceptionally high standard of maintenance discipline. The Maintenance Supervisor will:

• Ensure maintenance activities do not compromise food safety or product integrity.
• Work closely with Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Sanitation teams.
• Ensure equipment repairs meet applicable sanitary-design requirements.
• Follow strict controls relating to tools, lubricants, parts and foreign-material risks.
• Ensure equipment is properly cleaned and returned to production following maintenance activities.
• Support pre-operational inspections and corrective actions.
• Ensure maintenance personnel follow site hygiene and GMP requirements.
• Support investigations relating to maintenance-associated food-safety issues.
• Maintain appropriate documentation relating to equipment repairs and modifications.

Safety

• Maintain a strong safety culture within the maintenance team.
• Enforce Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) procedures.
• Ensure appropriate machine guarding is maintained.
• Ensure technicians use appropriate PPE and follow safe-work practices.
• Conduct safety observations and address unsafe conditions.
• Support incident investigations and corrective actions.
• Ensure maintenance personnel are appropriately trained for their roles.
• Promote a proactive approach to employee and equipment safety.

CMMS & Maintenance Reporting

• Manage daily maintenance work orders through the CMMS.
• Ensure accurate recording of labor, parts, downtime and repair activities.
• Monitor PM completion and overdue work.
• Maintain accurate equipment histories.
• Track breakdowns and recurring failures.
• Produce shift and maintenance-performance reports as required.
• Monitor key maintenance KPIs and identify areas for improvement.