Senior Director Maintenance & Reliability

Conagra Brands•Chicago, IL

20h•Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Vice President of Engineering, you will lead the enterprise Maintenance organization and set the strategic direction for reliability, asset management, and maintenance execution across all manufacturing sites. You will establish and govern maintenance standards, performance systems, and reliability programs that improve safety, compliance, asset availability, and total cost of ownership. You will partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Environmental Health and Safety, Quality and Food Safety, Risk, Procurement, and Finance to prioritize investments, mitigate risk, and deliver business objectives. You will develop leaders and build organizational capability through clear accountability, disciplined execution, and continuous improvement while providing executive‑level technical guidance during critical events.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, (Mechanical, Electrical, or Chemical) or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience.
10-15 years of progressive experience in maintenance, reliability, or asset management within manufacturing environments.
Five+ years of experience in the food industry or a closely related regulated industry such as biotechnology or pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Five+ years of maintenance leadership experience, including leading leaders, managing contractor or union environments as applicable, and driving planning, scheduling, and work management disciplines.
Working knowledge of maintenance‑related federal and state regulations, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Process Safety Management requirements.
Working knowledge of safe work practices including lockout tagout, machine guarding, confined space, hot work, and audit and corrective action management.
Working knowledge of industrial utilities and critical systems maintenance such as ammonia refrigeration, steam and boilers, industrial electrical controls and power distribution, wastewater pretreatment, compressed air, and process water systems.
Working knowledge of manufacturing equipment, controls, and maintenance practices in food processing and packaging environments, including sanitation and food safety constraints.
Demonstrated expertise in preventive and predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, root cause analysis, reliability centered maintenance, criticality analysis, backlog management, and outage execution.
Experience with maintenance, repair, and operations spare parts warehousing and inventory management, including critical spares strategy, cycle counting, storeroom layout, and kitting.
Proficiency with computerized maintenance management system (SAP or Maximo), Asset Performance Management, maintenance analytics, and Microsoft Office tools.
Demonstrated success leading maintenance and reliability across multiple sites through standardization, governance, and performance improvement.
Proven success leading through influence in a matrix organization and aligning site teams to enterprise standards and performance targets.

Nice To Haves

Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional certification preferred.

Responsibilities

Partner with Operations, Engineering, Environmental Health and Safety, Quality and Food Safety, Risk, Procurement, and Finance to define enterprise maintenance strategy, priorities, and performance expectations.
Own maintenance operating and capital planning, including budgeting, cost controls, contractor strategy, and resource capacity planning aligned to business needs.
Establish and govern enterprise standards for maintenance practices, planning and scheduling, work management, spare parts, lubrication, and critical asset strategies.
Lead governance for major outages, turnarounds, and critical repairs, ensuring safe execution, schedule adherence, cost control, and effective post‑outage learning.
Build and scale preventive and predictive maintenance and reliability engineering programs, including reliability centered maintenance, condition monitoring, and root cause analysis.
Support confidential business activities such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and litigation by providing maintenance and asset integrity due diligence, risk assessment, and integration planning.
Own enterprise maintenance performance management through key performance indicators, dashboards, and benchmarking.
Enable execution through computerized maintenance management system and enterprise asset management governance, master data standards, and asset performance management software to improve asset health visibility and decision making.
Set maintenance and asset integrity standards for site infrastructure, including civil, structural, and building assets, as well as manufacturing utilities.
Lead, coach, and develop a high‑performing maintenance organization through standard work, training, succession planning, and a strong safety culture.