Senior Maintenance and Reliability Engineer

Nouryon•LaPorte, IN

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Maintenance & Reliability Engineer is a key technical leader for mechanical integrity and asset reliability at Nouryon’s PSM-covered Battleground Facility in La Porte, TX. This role focuses on developing and optimizing maintenance and reliability strategies, supporting safe and compliant operation of process equipment, and driving long-term improvements in asset performance and cost. The engineer works closely with Operations, Maintenance, EHS, Engineering, Projects, and external service providers to ensure equipment is designed, maintained, and operated to meet Nouryon standards for safety, reliability, and productivity. This is a senior individual contributor role with no direct reports.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
Typically 5+ years of maintenance, inspection, and/or reliability engineering experience in chemical, petrochemical, refining, or similar PSM-covered industrial facilities.
Demonstrated experience with both fixed and rotating equipment
Prior experience in a multi-unit, PSM-regulated chemical complex strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Champion personal and process safety; ensure all maintenance and reliability activities comply with Nouryon EHS standards, OSHA PSM, EPA RMP, and site procedures.
Support PSM elements linked to maintenance and reliability, including Mechanical Integrity (MI), Management of Change (MOC), Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) follow-up, Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR), and Contractor Management.
Help ensure inspection, testing, and preventive maintenance programs meet applicable codes and standards (e.g., API, ASME, NBIC, NFPA) and internal Nouryon requirements.
Develop and maintain MI strategies for fixed and rotating equipment (pressure vessels, piping, tanks, relief devices, pumps, compressors, agitators, mechanical seals, etc.) across multiple units at Battleground.
Collaborate with API inspectors, QA/QC resources, and third-party inspection contractors to plan, evaluate, and disposition inspections, NDE, and thickness monitoring.
Define and maintain equipment criticality rankings and damage/corrosion mechanism evaluations to support risk-based inspection (RBI) and risk-based maintenance decisions.
Ensure inspection and MI findings are translated into actionable work, tracked in the CMMS, and closed in a timely and compliant manner.
Lead root cause problem solving (RCPS/RCA) for significant equipment failures, recurring issues, and unplanned outages; identify and implement sustainable corrective and preventive actions.
Develop, refine, and optimize preventive and predictive maintenance (PM/PdM) programs, including vibration analysis, oil analysis, thermography, and other condition monitoring methods.
Analyze equipment performance, downtime, and cost data to identify “bad actors” and prioritize reliability improvement initiatives across the site.
Recommend and help implement design, material, or equipment changes (e.g., seal upgrades, materials of construction, equipment standardization) to improve reliability, maintainability, and lifecycle cost.
Provide reliability and MI input to unit outages and plant turnarounds, including scope development, inspection and test planning, repair strategies, and post-event learning.
Support capital and expense projects with reliability-focused design review, equipment specifications, and maintenance strategy development to ensure long-term reliability and compliance with PSM/MI requirements.
Actively participate in MOC and PSSR processes to evaluate reliability, MI, and maintainability impacts of changes to equipment and systems.
Provide advanced technical support to maintenance, operations, and engineering for complex troubleshooting and repair planning.
Work with maintenance planners, schedulers, and supervisors to ensure work orders, PM tasks, and inspection plans are technically sound, properly prioritized, and reflected accurately in the CMMS (SAP).
Maintain and improve equipment master data, maintenance plans, and technical documentation (drawings, P&IDs, OEM manuals, specifications) for critical assets.
Serve as a site subject matter expert in maintenance and reliability engineering, promoting a strong reliability culture at the Battleground Facility.
Mentor junior engineers, mechanics, technicians, and inspectors in reliability principles, PSM MI requirements, and structured troubleshooting.
Develop and present reports, dashboards, and insights on reliability performance, MI compliance, and key equipment risks to site and business leadership.