Maintenance Manager

Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC•Council Bluffs, IA

16d•$130,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Maintenance Manager leads SIRE’s maintenance department and is accountable for the mechanical reliability, uptime, and safe operation of the ethanol plant while managing maintenance costs. This is a management role, not a hands-on maintenance position. The manager leads through supervisors, planners, and contractors, uses data to make decisions, and is accountable to plant leadership for the department’s financial and reliability performance. The role works closely with Operations and Engineering to plan outages and projects. The position oversees maintenance of plant production equipment and utility systems, including grinding and hammermills, cook and liquefaction, fermentation, distillation, molecular sieves, evaporation, centrifuges, dryers/DDGS, boilers and steam, cooling towers, compressed air, CO2, and electrical distribution. It also manages the CMMS, maintenance programs, storeroom, critical spares, inventory, tools, equipment, inspections, contractors, and vendors. The role is full-time, salaried, exempt, and onsite in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The manager must be available for call-outs, nights, weekends, and holidays as plant needs require. The position reports to the Chief of Operations.

Requirements

Proven ability to lead, motivate, and develop a team.
Proficiency using CMMS and Microsoft Office.
Strong verbal and written communication skills and ability to work well across departments.
Valid driver’s license required.
Availability for call-outs, nights, weekends, and holidays as plant needs require.
High school diploma or GED required.
At least 5 years of industrial maintenance experience, including at least 2 years in a supervisory role.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related technical field.
Experience in ethanol, renewable fuels, or other plants.
Shutdown or turnaround planning experience.

Responsibilities

Lead, schedule, train, and develop the mechanical, electrical/I&E/Utility, and storeroom maintenance team; manage outside contract labor as needed.
Own the annual maintenance budget for labor, contract services, parts and materials, rentals, and outage spending; build the budget, forecast monthly, and explain variances to plant leadership.
Own preventive and predictive maintenance programs, including vibration analysis, oil analysis, thermography, and ultrasonic testing, to reduce unplanned downtime.
Manage the CMMS; review, prioritize, and assign work orders daily, ensuring work is planned, scheduled, closed out, and documented.
Plan and run scheduled shutdowns and outages, including scope, contractors, parts, schedule, and budget.
Analyze spending by area, equipment, vendor, and failure type to identify and eliminate waste and recurring costs.
Maintain the reliability of critical plant equipment and utility systems.
Set the maintenance strategy and focus preventive and predictive programs on equipment most important to production and cost.
Track spending and identify ways to reduce maintenance cost per gallon.
Oversee the storeroom, critical spares, inventory control, and plant tools and equipment.
Coordinate regular inspections of plant assets, including pressure vessels, tanks, piping, rotating equipment, and fire protection.
Work with Engineering and the Project Manager on capital projects; review designs for maintainability, support commissioning, and plan handover into the preventive maintenance program.
Track and report maintenance KPIs, including uptime, PM compliance, backlog, planned versus reactive work, MTBF, and spending.
Manage relationships with key vendors and contractors.
Exemplify SIRE’s core values of Curious Grower, Optimistic Honesty, Hardworking, and Organized.
Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

Up to $2,500 in new employee sign-on bonuses.
Family medical, dental, and vision benefits, including a 100% company-paid medical premium option and $0-copay telehealth.
HSA and FSA options, with up to $1,000 annual company match.
Quarterly bonuses up to 15%.
Paid time off accrual starting on day one, up to 3 weeks in the first year.
10 paid holidays.
401(k) fund contributions up to 6%.
Short- and long-term disability and life insurance.
Paid parental and bereavement leave.
Training, skill-based pay increases, and career development.
Company events, appreciation, and SIRE swag.
Opportunities for long-term career growth.