Reliability Manager

Kaneka Americas Holding•Pasadena, TX

About The Position

The Reliability Manager leads the Reliability and Inspection function and develops the Maintenance Engineering and Inspection team. The role establishes accountability for safety, compliance, technical quality, execution, communication, and results while building technical and leadership capability, identifying skills and succession needs, and fostering ownership and continuous improvement. The position designs, implements, and sustains reliability and asset-management strategies for plant assets. It translates site objectives, operating risks, and production needs into priorities; maintains long-range asset strategies; monitors reliability KPIs; and leads efforts to resolve chronic equipment issues, reduce structural maintenance costs, and improve lifecycle value. The role also advances appropriate use of digital technologies, analytics, automation, and other tools. The manager oversees preventive and predictive maintenance optimization, condition monitoring, critical spare-parts strategy, and the Mechanical Integrity program. The role ensures alignment with Process Safety Management requirements, regulations, RAGAGEPs, and company standards; oversees nondestructive inspection; maintains accurate inspection records; and escalates significant integrity risks and overdue actions. The position leads root cause failure analysis and continuous improvement, manages the Reliability and Inspection department budget, develops cost-benefit analyses and business cases, and partners across the site on maintenance and asset-investment decisions. It identifies and supports capital and renewal opportunities and provides reliability expertise through project development, design, execution, commissioning, startup, and review. The Reliability Manager provides technical support for troubleshooting, repair strategies, outages, turnarounds, pre-startup safety reviews, commissioning, and critical equipment failures. The role builds cross-functional alignment with internal and external stakeholders, communicates technical and business matters to varied audiences, supports Kaneka Corporate and global facilities, and leads sustainable change. The role owns execution, performance, communication, recovery planning, and results for Reliability and Inspection, and recommends strategies, capital priorities, standards, and resources to the Senior Director of Engineering & Maintenance. It operates within approved budgets, policies, standards, and delegated authority, escalating significant risks and major resource or governance matters.

Requirements

Demonstrated commitment to safety and full compliance with HSSE, Process Safety Management, Mechanical Integrity, and regulatory requirements.
Ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical and leadership capability in a team.
Ability to develop and manage reliability and asset-management strategies, preventive and predictive maintenance programs, and Mechanical Integrity programs.
Ability to apply equipment condition, criticality, failure history, risk, performance, lifecycle cost, and operational impact to maintenance and investment decisions.
Ability to lead root cause failure analysis and ensure corrective actions are effective.
Ability to manage budgets, forecast and control costs, and prepare cost-benefit analyses and business cases.
Ability to provide technical leadership for equipment troubleshooting, repair strategies, outages, commissioning, startup, and critical failures.
Ability to communicate complex technical, risk, financial, and business matters clearly to varied audiences.
Ability to build cross-functional relationships, resolve conflicts, and lead sustainable change.
Emotional empathy, positive attitude, excellent communication skills, flexibility and adaptability, and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and develop the Maintenance Engineering and Inspection team; set objectives, assess performance, provide feedback, and foster accountability and continuous improvement.
Identify critical skills, capability gaps, succession risks, and future staffing needs; build bench strength and develop technical and leadership capability.
Design, implement, and sustain reliability and asset-management programs and long-range asset strategies for plant assets.
Establish and monitor reliability KPIs and lead initiatives to improve availability, performance, cost, risk reduction, and lifecycle value.
Oversee preventive and predictive maintenance plans, condition monitoring technologies, corrective actions, and critical spare-parts strategy.
Own and manage the Mechanical Integrity program; oversee nondestructive inspection and ensure compliance with applicable requirements, regulations, RAGAGEPs, and company standards.
Maintain accurate, complete, current inspection databases, records, recommendations, and documentation; communicate significant integrity and compliance risks and recovery plans.
Lead root cause failure analysis for significant equipment and system failures; ensure corrective actions are implemented and verified for effectiveness.
Recommend and implement improvements to equipment specifications, repair procedures, engineering standards, maintenance strategies, and workforce capability; capture and apply lessons learned.
Develop and manage the Reliability and Inspection department budget, forecasts, cost controls, contractor requirements, and recovery plans.
Prepare cost-benefit analyses and business cases for major repairs, renewals, reliability improvements, inspection initiatives, and technology investments.
Monitor performance and spending against approved plans and communicate risks, deviations, options, recommendations, and recovery actions.
Partner with Maintenance, Production, Finance, Supply Chain, and Capital Projects to improve asset-investment and maintenance-cost decisions.
Identify equipment-renewal, mechanical-integrity, and reliability-improvement opportunities for annual and multi-year capital plans; support capital portfolio prioritization with objective asset information.
Serve as the reliability and asset-management subject-matter expert through project development, design, execution, commissioning, startup, and post-project review.
Review equipment specifications and proposed modifications for reliability, maintainability, inspection accessibility, lifecycle cost, technical risk, and compliance with engineering standards.
Provide technical leadership for troubleshooting and job-plan development; review and approve repair strategies within assigned authority.
Support outage and turnaround scope development, pre-startup safety reviews, commissioning, startup, performance testing, punch-list resolution, and emergencies or critical equipment failures as needed.
Build cross-functional trust and alignment, communicate complex technical and business matters clearly, resolve departmental conflicts, and elevate cross-functional issues with facts and recommendations.
Maintain relationships with Kaneka Corporate and global Kaneka facilities and support KGES initiatives.
Lead sustainable change by defining the need, engaging stakeholders, establishing accountability, measuring outcomes, and adjusting implementation based on evidence.
Own execution, performance, communication, recovery planning, and results for Reliability and Inspection; recommend site-level strategies, capital priorities, standards, and resource needs to the Senior Director of Engineering & Maintenance.