Maintenance & Reliability Manager

Bimeda•Cambridge, ON

9d•CA$115,000 - CA$135,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Maintenance & Reliability Manager will demonstrate visible leadership for Safety and Quality, ensuring maintenance activities are planned and executed without compromising employee safety, product quality, data integrity or GMP compliance. This role involves building a maintenance culture where unsafe conditions, quality risks, and equipment abnormalities are proactively identified, escalated, and corrected. The manager will partner with Quality to ensure maintenance-related deviations, investigations, CAPAs, and change controls are technically robust and completed on time. They will also ensure maintenance and calibration activities are properly documented and performed in accordance with cGMPs, regulatory requirements, company standards, and procedures. The position requires developing and executing a site maintenance and reliability strategy aligned with business objectives, owning preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs, and establishing/monitoring relevant KPIs. A key aspect is driving the transition from reactive to planned, preventive, and predictive maintenance, improving equipment uptime and operational stability, and identifying chronic equipment losses for root-cause problem-solving. The role also involves providing governance for the site calibration program, ensuring accuracy of maintenance systems, and managing facility systems and contracts. Furthermore, the manager will act as a change agent, leading initiatives to increase maintenance effectiveness, equipment reliability, and technician productivity, while fostering a culture of structured problem-solving and continuous improvement. People leadership is crucial, involving leading tradespeople and technical personnel, building a high-performing maintenance organization, coaching and developing employees, and establishing an apprenticeship program. The role also requires partnering with Engineering and Operations on asset-lifecycle and capital-investment strategy, representing Maintenance during equipment specification and commissioning, and establishing maintenance readiness for new assets. Cross-functional collaboration with Engineering, Validation, Quality, Operations, and the Joint Health & Safety Committee is essential to address technical issues and equipment risks.

Requirements

Minimum 5 years of progressive experience in production and packaging maintenance, including people, group or project leadership; pharmaceutical, food or other regulated manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical/Process Engineering or a relevant technical discipline, or an equivalent recognized skilled trade qualification with appropriate leadership experience.
Demonstrated success improving a reactive maintenance environment toward proactive, reliability-based maintenance.
Experience with procurement, commissioning and qualification of manufacturing and packaging equipment.
Experience supporting regulatory inspections and operating within cGMP requirements.
Experience working in a unionized environment.
Experience with CMMS/EAM systems, maintenance planning and scheduling, asset history, maintenance KPIs and data-driven performance improvement.
Experience with structured root-cause analysis, CAPA, change control and equipment lifecycle management.
Uncompromising Safety and Quality mindset.
Change agent who constructively challenges the status quo and can lead through ambiguity and resistance.
Data-driven, fact-based decision maker with strong problem-solving and root-cause orientation.
Balances urgency with disciplined planning, risk management and sustainable execution.
Builds accountability and organizational capability rather than becoming the solution to every problem.
Develops people, encourages constructive challenge and creates an environment of continuous learning.
Demonstrated interpersonal savvy, relationship management and influencing skills across functions and levels.
Exercises innovative thinking and encourages practical, creative approaches to improve performance.
Strong written and oral communication skills in English.

Responsibilities

Demonstrate visible leadership for Safety and Quality, ensuring maintenance activities are planned and executed without compromising employee safety, product quality, data integrity or GMP compliance.
Build a maintenance culture in which unsafe conditions, quality risks and equipment abnormalities are proactively identified, escalated and corrected.
Ensure maintenance work practices, contractors, permits, lockout/tagout and other applicable controls consistently meet site safety requirements.
Partner with Quality to ensure maintenance-related deviations, investigations, CAPAs and change controls are technically robust, completed on time and address systemic root causes.
Ensure maintenance and calibration activities are properly documented and performed in accordance with cGMPs, regulatory requirements, company standards and procedures.
Develop and execute a site maintenance and reliability strategy aligned with Operations, Quality, Safety and business objectives.
Own the preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance programs, ensuring maintenance strategies are risk-based, effectively planned, completed on schedule and continuously improved based on equipment performance and failure history.
Establish and monitor maintenance and reliability KPIs, including appropriate measures for equipment downtime, PM compliance, schedule compliance, emergency work, repeat failures and maintenance backlog.
Drive the transition from reactive maintenance toward planned, preventive and predictive maintenance while improving equipment uptime and operational stability.
Identify chronic equipment losses and lead structured root-cause problem solving to eliminate repeat failures and improve asset performance.
Ensure critical equipment has appropriate maintenance strategies based on risk, failure modes, quality impact and business impact.
Establish effective maintenance planning, scheduling, prioritization, backlog management and critical-spares practices.
Provide governance and leadership for the site calibration program, including use of BlueMountain, to ensure regulatory compliance, timely execution, appropriate escalation and continuous improvement of calibration performance.
Ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of equipment master data, preventive maintenance plans and equipment history in MainBoss, and manage the equipment and facilities change-control process.
Provide governance and technical oversight for facility systems, including the Siemens Building Management System and applicable fire protection and security infrastructure, coordinating qualified resources and service providers as required.
Manage and periodically review maintenance and facility service contracts to ensure safety, compliance, service quality, performance and value.
Plan and lead major maintenance shutdown activities with clear scope, risk controls, resource plans, schedules and post-shutdown review.
Act as a change agent for the site, constructively challenging legacy maintenance practices and identifying better ways of working.
Lead initiatives that increase maintenance effectiveness, equipment reliability, technician productivity and operational performance.
Build a culture of structured problem solving, root-cause elimination, standard work and continuous improvement within the maintenance organization.
Use maintenance data and performance trends to challenge assumptions, prioritize improvements and measure sustained results.
Lead implementation and adoption of new maintenance processes, technologies, automation and digital tools where they create measurable value.
Ensure improvements are standardized, documented, embedded in operating routines and sustained rather than dependent on individual knowledge.
Provide leadership to ticketed millwrights, tradespeople, technical personnel and contractors to achieve Safety, Quality, Reliability and Productivity goals.
Build a high-performing maintenance organization with clear accountabilities, standards, priorities and performance expectations.
Coach and develop employees in technical capability, troubleshooting, structured problem solving and leadership.
Develop competency matrices, training plans, cross-training and succession strategies for critical technical capabilities.
Empower technicians to take ownership of equipment reliability and problem resolution while establishing effective daily and weekly management routines.
Establish an apprenticeship program to pro-actively grow and develop talent within.
Lead effectively in a unionized environment and maintain constructive labour relationships.
Partner with Engineering, Operations and Quality to develop the site asset-lifecycle and capital-investment strategy, identifying obsolescence, reliability, safety, compliance and capacity risks.
Contribute to development and management of the Operations capital budget and ensure priorities support compliance, reliability and capacity-improvement objectives.
Represent Maintenance throughout equipment specification, design review, procurement, installation, commissioning and qualification to ensure new assets are safe, compliant, maintainable and reliable.
Establish maintenance readiness for new equipment and capital projects, including preventive maintenance strategies, spare parts, technical documentation, training, asset master data and handover requirements before routine operation.
Work closely with Engineering, Validation, Quality, Operations and the Joint Health & Safety Committee to ensure technical issues and equipment risks are addressed to required standards.
Establish an environment that promotes timely communication, effective escalation, fact-based decision making and strong cross-functional collaboration.
Support technical aspects of quality investigations involving equipment or facility systems, determine root causes and drive associated corrective and preventive actions to completion.
Perform other responsibilities consistent with the scope and leadership expectations of the role as business and site needs evolve.