Utilities Maintenance Planner

Smithfield Foods • Tar Heel, NC

2d • Onsite

About The Position

This role plays a critical part in supporting the plant’s utilities reliability, with a strong emphasis on ammonia refrigeration systems and associated infrastructure. As the Utilities Maintenance Planner, you will be responsible for developing detailed job plans for refrigeration and utilities equipment, ensuring all labor, materials, and safety requirements are clearly defined and available prior to execution. You will serve as the subject matter expert for utilities maintenance planning within the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), with a focus on refrigeration systems, boilers, compressed air, water systems, and other critical utilities. By maintaining accurate equipment data, building robust job plans, and coordinating closely with maintenance, operations, and storeroom teams, you will help ensure safe, compliant, and reliable plant operation—particularly within regulated systems such as ammonia refrigeration. This position will also play a key role in supporting Process Safety Management (PSM) compliance by ensuring maintenance work is properly planned, documented, and executed in accordance with regulatory and company standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, or a related field; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Working knowledge of maintenance principles, mechanical and electrical systems, and CMMS software.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook).
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively with others in a fast-paced production environment.
• Demonstrated ability to be approachable, team-oriented, and maintain a positive work environment.

Nice To Haves

• Previous experience as a Maintenance Planner or Scheduler.
• Previous experience with Ammonia Refrigeration Systems.
• Strong understanding of preventive and predictive maintenance practices.
• Experience with CMMS software, preferably SAP.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Maintenance Planning & Coordination Develop, review, and maintain equipment master data for utilities systems, including refrigeration assets, compressors, vessels, piping systems, boilers, and ancillary equipment.
• Build and maintain detailed job plans for preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance on ammonia refrigeration and utilities systems.
• Walk down jobs in the field to verify scope, identify hazards, and confirm materials and labor requirements.
• Estimate labor hours, materials, specialized tools, and contractor support required for each work order.
• Coordinate with vendors and contractors for refrigeration system work, including inspections, repairs, and compliance-related activities.
• Ensure all required permits, procedures, and documentation are in place prior to job execution (e.g., line breaking, confined space, hot work).
• Track material deliveries and coordinate staging/kitting of parts for planned utilities work.
• Maintain a well-organized backlog of utilities maintenance work, prioritized by risk, compliance, and operational impact.
• Support weekly scheduling and outage planning for utilities systems, including coordination of refrigeration shutdowns or system interruptions.
• Review completed work orders to ensure accurate documentation and feedback, especially for compliance-critical work.
• CMMS & Data Management Serve as the CMMS subject matter expert for utilities and refrigeration systems.
• Maintain accurate and complete asset hierarchies, bills of material (BOMs), and preventive maintenance task lists.
• Ensure refrigeration system PMs align with PSM and regulatory inspection/testing requirements.
• Generate reports on backlog status, PM compliance, equipment reliability, and maintenance trends for utilities systems.
• Support continuous improvement by identifying gaps in PM programs, job plans, and asset data.
• Inventory & Procurement Support Partner with storeroom and procurement teams to ensure availability of critical refrigeration and utilities spare parts (e.g., valves, seals, sensors, compressors, instrumentation).
• Identify and maintain critical spares for ammonia refrigeration systems and other essential utilities equipment.
• Recommend min/max adjustments based on usage trends, failure history, and risk to operations.
• Safety & Compliance (PSM Focus) Ensure all job plans incorporate appropriate safety procedures, including lockout/tagout, line breaking, confined space entry, and ammonia safety protocols.
• Support compliance with OSHA PSM requirements and company standards for refrigeration systems.
• Assist with documentation and preparation for audits, inspections, and regulatory reviews related to utilities systems.
• Promote safe work practices and reinforce a strong safety culture within utilities maintenance activities.
• Leadership & Collaboration Work closely with utilities maintenance teams, reliability, and operations to coordinate planned work and minimize production impact.
• Provide technical planning support for refrigeration and utilities maintenance activities.
• Collaborate with engineering and reliability teams on system improvements, upgrades, and capital projects related to utilities.
• Serve as a key point of coordination between operations, maintenance, and contractors for utilities work execution.

Benefits

• Smithfield is proud to offer robust, flexible and affordable benefit plans and programs to support our team members and their loved ones, and with out-of-pocket costs, on average, 20 percent less than plans offered by other employers.
• Beyond our medical plans, our Be Well programs offer tools and resources to enhance your quality of life, at no additional cost. These programs are uniquely tailored to our Smithfield team and provide support for elective surgeries, weight loss, mental health, cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, smoking cessation, asthma, maternity management and more.
• Our company invests in your future. We offer comprehensive training and professional development programs designed to help you reach your full potential.
• Through LinkedIn Learning, employees can access on‑demand courses, professional certificates, and skill‑based training to build capabilities aligned with career and business needs.
• Our partnership with GUILD supports your continuing education with tuition assistance covering English language learning, high school completion, and degree programs, while our leadership development initiatives nurture high‑potential talent.
• We also offer unique benefits like our Smithfield Scholarship Program for employees’ children.
• Smithfield’s Education Reimbursement Program provides financial reimbursement to team members who want to further their formal education by obtaining a GED/High School Equivalency (HSE) Diploma or by pursuing an academic degree at an accredited college or university that is not a Guild learning partner.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees