Maintenance Technician - 12 Hr Day Shift

Kerry•Rochester, MN

12d•$33 - $39

About The Position

Kerry is hiring a Maintenance Technician at its Rochester, Minnesota site, part of the Applied Health and Nutrition Division and specializing in fermented ingredients for the bioscience industry. The site produces clean-label, natural products and emphasizes freshness, quality, food safety, and plant reliability. The Maintenance Technician troubleshoots, repairs, rebuilds, maintains, and improves food processing, fermentation, drying, liquid-handling, material-handling, and packaging equipment to support uptime, production efficiency, equipment reliability, and food safety compliance. The position works a 12-hour rotating schedule, with postings reflecting Red Days and Blue Days. The role supports sanitary and aseptic processing systems, pumps, material-handling and packaging equipment, and priority process equipment. It also responds to breakdowns, supports production startups and changeovers, performs preventive and predictive maintenance, documents work in the CMMS, participates in root cause analysis, and recommends improvements. Work must comply with applicable GMP, HACCP, SQF, OSHA, LOTO, food safety, sanitary design, and company safety requirements.

Requirements

High school diploma or GED.
At least 3 years of industrial maintenance experience in food, beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, CPG, or manufacturing environments.
Experience with sanitary process equipment, pumps, valves, packaging, and fermentation/drying systems.
Strong mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, and automation troubleshooting skills.
Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks, and support production environments.
Strong communication, problem-solving, and root cause analysis skills.
Flexibility to work shifts, overtime, weekends, and holidays.

Nice To Haves

Technical training or equivalent experience.
Experience in dairy, food processing, ingredient manufacturing, fermentation, aseptic processing, or spray drying.
Allen-Bradley PLC and VFD troubleshooting experience.
Class B boiler license.
TIG welding or fabrication experience.
Knowledge of GMP, HACCP, SQF, OSHA, LOTO, and food safety.

Responsibilities

Maintain and troubleshoot hygienic and aseptic processing systems, including SPX Flow/APV, GEA, Sharpe, and Südmo valves.
Repair and rebuild sanitary valves, actuators, seats, seals, diaphragms, aseptic valve manifolds, and related wear components.
Support CIP and SIP operations to ensure product quality, sanitation, and process reliability.
Troubleshoot, repair, and maintain vacuum, centrifugal, positive-displacement, rotary-lobe, and process-transfer pumps, including seals, bearings, shafts, impellers, alignment, vibration monitoring, and performance testing.
Maintain rotary valves, rotary feeders, airlocks, drive systems, gearboxes, conveying equipment, and material-handling systems.
Perform maintenance on fermenters, evaporators, spray dryers, liquefiers, mixers, blending systems, liquid storage silos, heat exchangers, ingredient-handling systems, and thermal/process systems.
Troubleshoot and repair liquid and dry product packaging systems, filling and bagging equipment, conveyors, labeling equipment, case packers, and palletizers.
Respond to equipment breakdowns, support production line startups and changeovers, and diagnose process interruptions while minimizing downtime.
Troubleshoot motors, motor controls, VFDs, sensors, instrumentation, PLC-controlled equipment, and automated manufacturing systems.
Read and interpret mechanical drawings, P&IDs, electrical schematics, equipment manuals, and technical drawings.
Complete preventive and predictive maintenance, document work in the CMMS, participate in root cause analysis, and recommend safety, reliability, and efficiency improvements.
Follow GMP, HACCP, SQF, OSHA, LOTO, food safety, sanitary design, and company safety requirements.