Plant Engineering Manager

Job Title: Plant Engineering Manager Location: Dallas, TX (on-site)

A well-established food & beverage manufacturer is hiring a Plant Engineering Manager for a high-volume dairy processing facility in Dallas. You’ll own engineering, maintenance, reliability, utilities and capital work at the plant. The goal is equipment that runs reliably, stays food-safe and gets more efficient every year. This role suits a hands-on leader who has spent their career in dairy plants and knows HTST, CIP and ammonia refrigeration in detail.

What You’ll Do:

• Run daily maintenance and engineering for processing, packaging and utility systems, keeping lines running and unplanned downtime low
• Build and improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs that extend asset life and cut reactive work
• Hire, coach and develop a team of maintenance technicians, engineers and support staff
• Set and report KPIs such as uptime, OEE, downtime causes and maintenance spend
• Keep pasteurizers, homogenizers, separators, fillers and CIP systems running at their best
• Oversee ammonia refrigeration, steam boilers, compressed air, and water and wastewater treatment
• Work with Quality and Production to protect food safety, product consistency and regulatory standing
• Lead capital projects from scope through startup, including equipment upgrades, expansions and automation
• Drive continuous improvement with Lean, Six Sigma and TPM tools
• Keep the site compliant with FDA, USDA, PMO, SQF, HACCP, GMP and OSHA requirements, plus city, state and federal environmental reporting, including PSM
• Build a strong safety culture with correct procedures, LOTO and PPE use across the team
• Lead risk assessments, reliability studies, root cause analysis and failure investigations
• Own the engineering and maintenance budget, negotiate with vendors and contractors, and find savings in energy use and waste
• Act as the plant’s go-to technical resource and partner with corporate engineering on long-range facility plans

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial or a related engineering discipline
• 10+ years in plant engineering, maintenance or reliability in dairy manufacturing
• Strong working knowledge of dairy process equipment, ammonia refrigeration, CIP, packaging lines and plant utilities (boilers, HVAC, compressed air)
• A record of running capital projects, PM programs and process automation work
• Experience with Allen-Bradley ControlLogix hardware and software, and the ability to read and follow ladder logic
• Experience leading multi-discipline teams and managing a department budget
• Clear communication with plant staff, cross-functional partners and senior leadership
• Advanced Excel skills for building reports and analyzing data

Nice to Have:

• Lean Six Sigma certification or formal TPM program experience
• PSM/RMP experience with ammonia systems
• Experience with predictive tools such as vibration analysis, thermography and oil analysis
• CMMS administration experience (SAP PM, Maximo or similar)