Sr. Reliability Engineer

8d2a0f70-fce2-4884-8e67-b54237b33e87•Bardstown, KY

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Reliability Engineer will lead the initial reliability program for assigned assets at Heaven Hill’s Bardstown, Kentucky bottling location. The role is focused on reducing chronic losses and repeat failures, improving asset performance and component life, and lowering lifecycle costs. It works cross-functionally with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, and Continuous Improvement, and will expand to support additional facilities as the program matures and business priorities require. The Engineer uses equipment and maintenance data to prioritize improvement work, leads loss-elimination and failure-analysis efforts, strengthens preventive and predictive maintenance practices, and builds site capability through coaching, training, and standardization. The role also provides reliability input to capital projects and equipment modifications, supports safe and quality-compliant operations, and spends substantial time in plant, warehouse, and storage areas. Support for off-shift or weekend work may be required for critical troubleshooting, trials, or project execution.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Manufacturing, or Reliability Engineering, or a related technical field.
At least five years of progressively responsible experience in manufacturing, maintenance, reliability, engineering, or a closely related technical environment.
Strong technical knowledge of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and controls systems used in bottling or high-speed manufacturing.
Demonstrated application of FMEA, root-cause analysis, life-data concepts, Pareto analysis, and failure-mode analysis.
Ability to interpret equipment, maintenance, production, and CMMS data and turn findings into practical improvement actions.
Strong facilitation, communication, and coaching skills, with the ability to influence Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, and technical teams.
Working knowledge of CMMS and maintenance work-management practices.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver measurable, sustained results.
Ability to perform work involving frequent talking, seeing, hearing, standing, walking, and sitting, and occasional manual dexterity, reaching, stooping, kneeling, or crouching.
Ability to lift or move up to 20 pounds and occasionally up to 25 pounds.
Ability to work in manufacturing plant, conference-room, office, bottling, warehousing, and storage environments, which may include moderate noise and climate-controlled or non-climate-controlled spaces.
Ability to use required PPE and follow site safety procedures.

Nice To Haves

Experience with bottling, packaging, food and beverage, consumer goods, or another high-speed manufacturing operation.
Experience with eMaint, IFS, SAP, or similar CMMS systems.
Certification or formal training in Reliability Engineering, Lean, Six Sigma, vibration analysis, thermography, lubrication, or condition monitoring.
Experience with OEE, MES, TPM, autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, early equipment management, or PLC and controls troubleshooting.

Responsibilities

Lead the initial bottling-site reliability program for assigned assets, focusing on chronic losses, repeat failures, and lifecycle improvement opportunities.
Use downtime, OEE, work-order, maintenance, and condition data to prioritize reliability work and quantify performance gaps.
Lead cross-functional loss-elimination projects from problem definition through implementation, sustainment, and benefit verification.
Participate in daily and weekly performance routines and maintain a visible reliability action plan.
Lead component-level breakdown analysis for critical assets and facilitate reviews of significant equipment failures; track corrective actions to verified closure.
Partner with Maintenance and Operations to improve preventive and predictive maintenance, lubrication, inspection, and basic-care strategies.
Develop and use asset criticality assessments, FMEA, failure-mode libraries, bad-actor lists, critical-spare strategies, condition-monitoring routes, and response standards.
Work with planners and supervisors to improve failure coding, work-order history, and maintenance feedback.
Develop and maintain obsolescence strategies for critical assets, controls, and components, including lifecycle plans, spare decisions, and escalation of replacement needs.
Facilitate and coach practical problem-solving methods, including 5-Why, fishbone, A3, DMAIC, and root-cause analysis.
Work with operators, technicians, and technical trainers to improve centerlines, CILs, troubleshooting standards, escalation paths, and operator basic care.
Train and coach teams on reliability and problem-solving tools, using field observations and audits to verify adoption and effectiveness.
Develop, implement, and audit reliability standards aligned with the enterprise reliability strategy.
Partner with the Director, Enterprise Maintenance & Reliability to translate enterprise standards into site execution, identify gaps, and share proven practices.
Document analysis, standards, and lessons learned so improvements can be replicated and sustained across facilities.
Provide technical input to capital projects, equipment modifications, and commissioning to improve maintainability and reliability by design.
Drive component design improvements for recurring failures and high-cost lifecycle issues.
Identify opportunities for component standardization, critical-spare optimization, obsolescence risk mitigation, and vendor support.
Promote safe work practices and complete reliability actions in accordance with safety, quality, food-safety, GMP, and site work-control requirements.
Conduct observations, audits, troubleshooting, and project work in bottling, warehouse, and storage areas, and provide similar on-site support at other facilities as responsibilities expand.
Support scheduled production and maintenance windows, including off-shift or weekend work when required for critical troubleshooting, trials, or project execution.