Maintenance & Reliability Leader

Job title: Maintenance & Reliability Leader

About the Role Roquette is seeking a highly motivated Maintenance & Reliability Leader to join the Newark Leadership Team. This critical leadership role has broad influence across maintenance, reliability, engineering, safety, capital planning, and operational performance, and serves as the primary backup to the Site Leader. You will shape plant culture, drive asset reliability, develop talent, and improve business performance while ensuring safe and efficient production of high-quality excipient products.

What You'll Do

• Lead a high-performing maintenance and reliability organization.
• Influence site strategy and operational performance.
• Drive meaningful improvements in safety, asset reliability, and productivity.
• Develop future leaders and technical talent.
• Serve as a key leadership partner to the Site Leader and Newark Management Team.
• Build long-term maintenance and reliability capability within Roquette.
• Provide strategic direction as a Site Leadership Team member; collaborate with the Site Leader to drive operational excellence, organizational effectiveness, and business performance.
• Lead site-wide initiatives impacting safety, quality, environmental performance, employee engagement, and financial results.
• Model Roquette's values and leadership behaviors, fostering accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Drive Maintenance & Reliability Excellence: develop and execute the site's maintenance and reliability strategy; relentlessly pursue maximum plant reliability to support safe and efficient operations.
• Lead maintenance, reliability engineering, utilities, facilities, and infrastructure engineering activities.
• Own site Maintenance & Reliability KPIs including OEE, MTBF, MTTR, preventive maintenance compliance, and maintenance cost effectiveness; monitor and improve performance.
• Drive preventive, predictive, precision, and reliability-centered maintenance programs.
• Lead RCFA, failure elimination efforts, and equipment reliability improvement initiatives.
• Implement asset management and lifecycle strategies that optimize reliability, cost, and performance.
• Own site asset criticality assessments, lifecycle management plans, and long-term replacement strategies.
• Ensure effective maintenance planning, scheduling, and work execution; champion maintenance management systems, reliability data, and analytics.
• Ensure MRO inventory management processes and storage areas comply with Roquette standards.
• Safely coordinate and execute maintenance turnarounds, shutdowns, and major maintenance activities.
• Support process automation, engineering, and operational teams through technical leadership and problem-solving expertise.
• Safety, Quality & Compliance Leadership: Partner with the Site Leader to achieve EHS&Q goals and regulatory compliance; reinforce Life Saving Rules through field engagement; maintain strong field presence to coach, reinforce standards, identify risks, and understand operational challenges.
• Ensure appropriate technical review of maintenance work plans with consideration for safety, environmental, process safety, and quality requirements; drive initiatives to eliminate hazards through engineering controls and process improvements.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary range: The current salary range for this role is estimated to be $125,000-175,000 per year, with eligibility for performance-based incentive compensation.
• What We Offer: A highly collaborative team environment with ample room for growth. Competitive pay, annual performance bonus, comprehensive benefits, 6.2% company retirement contribution, and professional development opportunities. Generous paid time off and 12 annual paid company holidays. 12 weeks 100% paid maternity leave, and up to 4 weeks 100% paid parental leave (including adoption/surrogacy/foster care leave) for non-birthing parents. Student loan repayment assistance and tuition reimbursement for select roles. Annual wellness benefit and wellness-centered programs focused on your health needs.