Director of Maintenance and Reliability Full Time NEW

Graham Packaging is a people, planet and values-based company and a leader in sustainable packaging manufacturing. From the kitchen to the laundry room, Graham Packaging is part of your everyday life.

For employees at Graham, our Blue Culture is part of their everyday lives, too. In other words, Blue is how we do things here.

At Graham, we are united by a clear vision. We know our part and help those around us know theirs, encouraging one another to continuously improve. We create a safe, challenging environment to innovate by supporting creative ideas and new ways of thinking. We take the initiative to cultivate our individual growth and help others do the same, while keeping ourselves and one another accountable. And we actively promote cooperation, collaboration, integrity and respect across regions and teams to foster an engaged, diverse and connected workforce.

We value our employees, and a Blue Culture allows for the most rewarding employee experience as part of the Graham family. Blue is how we feel about what we do—together—to create a better tomorrow. Working at Graham means you lead constructively with clear goals, use diverse thinking to drive excellence, accountability, innovation, as well as demonstrating collaboration, embracing learning, and taking action for continuous improvement and growth.

The Director of Maintenance & Reliability is responsible for developing and executing the global maintenance and reliability strategy across a multi-site manufacturing network. This role drives equipment reliability, asset performance, operational uptime, and maintenance excellence through standardized processes, predictive and preventive maintenance programs, reliability engineering, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Reporting to senior operations leadership, the Director partners closely with Plant Managers, Engineering, Supply Chain, EHS, Quality, and Finance to optimize manufacturing asset performance while reducing downtime, maintenance costs, and operational risk. The role provides strategic leadership and governance across more than 50 global manufacturing locations.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and lead the global maintenance and reliability strategy aligned with operational and business objectives.
• Establish standardized maintenance processes, reliability frameworks, and asset management practices across all manufacturing sites.
• Create a culture of proactive maintenance, operational discipline, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for maintenance excellence, asset reliability, and equipment lifecycle management.
• Build and lead a high-performing global maintenance and reliability organization.

Reliability & Asset Performance

• Drive implementation of preventive, predictive, and condition-based maintenance programs.
• Improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), uptime, mean time between failures (MTBF), and maintenance cost performance.
• Lead root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and corrective action processes for critical equipment failures.
• Partner with Engineering and Operations teams to improve equipment design reliability and maintainability.
• Develop asset criticality assessments and long-term capital replacement strategies.
• Champion CMMS improvement, machine learning and Asset health management.

Operational Excellence

• Standardize maintenance KPIs, work management practices, planning and scheduling processes, and spare parts optimization.
• Implement and sustain reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Drive CMMS/EAM optimization and data integrity across the enterprise.
• Benchmark global maintenance performance and identify opportunities for process improvement and cost reduction.
• Ensure maintenance programs support safety, quality, environmental, and regulatory compliance requirements.

Team Leadership & Development

• Provide leadership, coaching, and development to regional and site maintenance leaders.
• Build organizational capability in reliability engineering, predictive technologies, planning/scheduling, and technical problem solving.
• Foster collaboration and best-practice sharing across global manufacturing locations.
• Support succession planning and talent development for maintenance and engineering functions.

Financial & Project Management

• Develop and manage global maintenance and reliability budgets.
• Identify and execute cost savings and productivity initiatives while improving asset performance.
• Support capital project planning, commissioning, and startup reliability readiness.
• Evaluate and implement emerging maintenance technologies, automation solutions, and digital tools.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Industrial Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field required.
• Certified Maintenance professionals are desired at this level

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive maintenance, reliability, engineering, or manufacturing leadership experience within a complex manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading maintenance and reliability programs across multiple manufacturing sites and global operations.
• Proven success implementing predictive/preventive maintenance and reliability improvement initiatives.
• Experience within large-scale industrial, process manufacturing, chemical, consumer products, automotive, packaging, metals, or related industries preferred.
• Strong experience with CMMS/EAM systems, reliability analytics, and maintenance planning tools.

Knowledge, Skills & Competencies

• Deep knowledge of reliability engineering principles, TPM, RCM, Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to align maintenance strategy to operational and financial objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive change in a matrixed global organization.
• Machine learning and AI experience
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading through organizational transformation and change management initiatives.
• Travel up to 50% is required for the role

The standard compensation for this role is $147,700 – $221,100. Salary offers will be determined based on final candidate qualifications, experience, skillset, and other relevant factors.

The expected salary range for the position described in this posting is made in accordance with the legal mandates of certain jurisdictions within the United States. The final agreed-upon compensation is based on individual qualifications and experience.

Benefits include medical, dental, vision and basic life insurance. Employees are able to enroll in the company’s 401K Employee Saving Plan and may participate in its Employee Wellness Program. Employees will also receive paid time off in accordance with company policy and state law requirements.

Graham Packaging is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, religion, creed, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.