Rotating Reliability Engineer

Ashland • Hopewell, VA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

Ashland Specialty Ingredients is seeking a Rotating Reliability Engineer for its Hopewell, Virginia site. This visible role within the Maintenance function owns reliability strategies for rotating equipment and leads condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, defect elimination, and reliability improvement efforts. The position reports to the Maintenance Manager.

The engineer supports equipment troubleshooting, maintenance strategy and work quality, outages and turnarounds, and capital projects. The role also maintains reliability data and standards, develops site capabilities, and works collaboratively with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain, technicians, planners, supervisors, and vendors. The position is expected to take initiative, focus on performance and safety, and build collaborative relationships.

Requirements

• 5–10 years of rotating reliability engineering experience.
• Mechanical Engineering degree or technical degree.
• Vibration Category Level 3 certification.
• Root-cause analysis training and coordination.
• Demonstrated responsible and ethical behavior.

Responsibilities

• Create and own reliability strategies for pumps, compressors, gearboxes, centrifuges, agitators, fans, blowers, and seals.
• Develop asset criticality, repair-versus-replace recommendations, lifecycle plans, equipment standards, preferred designs, and application guidance.
• Lead vibration, lubrication, thermography, ultrasound, oiling, and performance-monitoring programs; establish routes, alarm limits, collection frequencies, and escalation criteria.
• Review condition-monitoring findings and translate them into prioritized actions, matching monitoring technologies to equipment failure modes.
• Lead or support root-cause analyses for significant or recurring rotating-equipment failures; analyze failure history, repair records, vibration data, and operating conditions; identify causes and develop sustainable countermeasures.
• Track corrective actions and verify their effectiveness after implementation.
• Maintain a ranked bad-actor list using downtime, cost, frequency, risk, and production impact; build business cases for reliability improvements and equipment upgrades.
• Facilitate cross-functional improvement plans and quantify the benefits and sustainment requirements of completed improvements.
• Optimize preventive and predictive maintenance tasks based on failure modes and equipment history.
• Provide technical scope for inspections, repairs, overhauls, precision installation, alignment, and balancing; review repair quality, tolerance documentation, and post-maintenance acceptance data.
• Partner with planners, supervisors, technicians, and vendors on complex rotating-equipment work.
• Provide field response to equipment vibration, seal leakage, bearing temperature, lubrication, and performance issues; integrate process conditions and mechanical data during troubleshooting.
• Define safe operating limits, temporary controls, and escalation needs with appropriate stakeholders, and communicate technical findings, risks, and recommended actions.
• Define rotating-equipment inspection and overhaul scopes for outages and turnarounds; identify critical spares, special tools, vendor support, and quality checkpoints.
• Support equipment commissioning, startup readiness, and post-startup monitoring; provide reliability input to capital projects, MOC reviews, design reviews, and PSSRs.
• Maintain accurate equipment histories, failure coding, technical files, and reliability dashboards; track rotating-equipment KPIs and communicate trends, risks, and priorities.
• Develop technical standards, troubleshooting guides, and training for site personnel.
• Support spare-parts strategies and vendor performance reviews for critical equipment.
• Contribute to organizational goals by taking initiative, executing goals, and focusing on performance and safety.
• Build collaborative relationships, optimize diverse talent, and use positive communication and influence to improve organizational capacity and capabilities.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting on Day 1 for the employee and their family.
• 401(k) plan with company match.
• Industry-competitive salary and pay-for-performance incentive plans.
• Opportunities for development and advancement throughout the global organization.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level