Food Engineering Jobs in Alabama (NOW HIRING)

Location: Brundidge, AL (onsite at Southern Classic Food Group, a Trillium Foods company)

Reports to: Plant Manager

FLSA: Salaried, Exempt

Position Overview:

Trillium Foods is seeking a Maintenance & Engineering Manager to support the day-to-day maintenance, engineering, and expansion activities at our Brundidge, Alabama facility. Our Brundidge site consists of 15 production lines across two production/warehousing facilities plus a third warehouse facility totaling over 400,000 SF of warehouse, production, and office space. Reporting to Plant Leadership, this role is responsible for overseeing maintenance operations, supporting engineering initiatives, improving equipment performance, managing third party contractors and services related to maintenance and expansion projects, and ensuring the safe and efficient operation of manufacturing equipment and facility systems.

This position partners closely with Operations, Quality, Food Safety, Supply Chain, and R&D to support productivity improvements, equipment reliability, and future growth of the facility. Responsibilities include leading preventive and corrective maintenance programs, supporting equipment upgrades and validations, participating in implementation activities and post-implementation follow-up, and helping drive operational efficiency across sauces, syrups, and liquid food manufacturing operations. This role will own the site's asset reliability strategy, utilities operations, maintenance planning and scheduling, food-safe equipment design, and capital project execution to ensure world-class safety, quality, service, and cost performance.

The ideal candidate is organized, hands-on, solutions-oriented, and thrives in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment while building strong teams and sustainable processes.

Key Responsibilities:

Maintenance & Reliability Leadership

• Lead all plant maintenance activities including preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs
• Develop and execute strategies to improve equipment reliability, uptime, and overall operational efficiency
• Reduce downtime through troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and corrective action implementation
• Oversee work order systems, spare parts inventory, PM scheduling, and CMMS utilization
• Ensure all production lines, utilities, and facility systems operate safely and efficiently
• Support maintenance coverage and responsiveness across plant operations
• Engineering & Continuous Improvement
• Support engineering initiatives including equipment upgrades, automation improvements, process enhancements, and facility improvements
• Participate in project implementation activities including equipment startup, validation support, troubleshooting, and post-implementation follow-up
• Support productivity improvements, operational efficiency initiatives, and future growth of the facility
• Assist with equipment layout, process flow improvements, and operational optimization
• Support commercialization efforts, plant trials, and new product launches in partnership with Operations and R&D
• Identify opportunities for efficiency improvements, waste reduction, and cost savings

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop maintenance technicians and engineering personnel
• Establish clear expectations, accountability, and performance standards
• Foster a culture focused on safety, urgency, teamwork, ownership, and continuous improvement
• Support technical training and development initiatives for maintenance staff
• Build strong cross-functional relationships across Operations, Quality, Safety, and Leadership teams

Food Safety, Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with all OSHA, GMP, SQF, HACCP, FDA, environmental, and company safety requirements
• Support internal and external audits and maintain audit-ready documentation
• Ensure maintenance activities are completed in accordance with food safety and sanitation standards
• Maintain compliance related to utilities, waste disposal, air emissions, facility permits, and fire protection systems
• Lead safety initiatives including LOTO, machine guarding, preventive safety programs, and contractor safety

Budgeting & Operational Performance

• Support maintenance and capital budget planning activities
• Track and report KPIs including downtime, OEE, PM completion, maintenance spend, and equipment reliability
• Identify and implement cost reduction opportunities while maintaining operational effectiveness
• Support long-term planning for equipment reliability and facility improvements

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field preferred
• Minimum 7+ years of progressive maintenance and/or engineering leadership experience in food, beverage, chemical, or manufacturing environments
• Experience in liquid food manufacturing, sauces, syrups, dressings, or beverage processing strongly preferred
• Strong knowledge of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, PLC, and automation systems
• Experience with CMMS systems and preventive maintenance programs
• Knowledge of GMP, HACCP, SQF, FDA, and food manufacturing standards
• Strong leadership, communication, project management, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to lead through change and drive continuous improvement initiatives
• Experience with batching, blending, thermal processing, filling, and packaging equipment
• Experience supporting high-speed manufacturing operations
• Lean Manufacturing, TPM, or Continuous Improvement experience preferred
• Experience managing contractors and facility improvement projects

Physical & Work Environment

• Manufacturing plant environment with exposure to noise, moving equipment, varying temperatures, and food production areas
• Ability to walk the plant floor, climb stairs, and occasionally lift up to 50 pounds
• Flexibility to support off-shift or weekend work during projects, shutdowns, or operational emergencies

Trillium Foods provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.