Senior Manager – Plant Engineering & Maintenance

R10103320 Senior Manager – Plant Engineering & Maintenance (Open)

Location:

Newport, DE (MEDAL) - Manufacturing - Production We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces the unique perspectives of our employees, our customers, patients, community stakeholders, and cultures across the world. We believe that a variety of backgrounds makes our team stronger and more innovative.

At Air Liquide we RESPECT, HONOR and VALUE diversity.

Air Liquide is hiring for a Senior Manager- Plant Engineering & Maintenance in Newport, DE.

We are looking for you!

The Senior Manager – Plant Engineering & Maintenance provides strategic and operational leadership over process control systems, capital project implementation, and site asset reliability. Reporting directly to the Senior Director, Manufacturing, this position leads a multidisciplinary engineering and maintenance team to design, execute, and optimize technical infrastructure, automation systems, and physical plant assets. The role ensures high equipment availability, control system stability, and successful capital project delivery while upholding safety, quality, and regulatory compliance standards. This position manages a group supporting a 24/7 operational environment. They are responsible for establishing & championing best practices in maintenance management for both corrective and preventative maintenance in support of achieving the organization’s objectives in quality, delivery, and cost.

Job Responsibilities:

Plant Engineering & Controls Leadership:

• Lead site engineering operations across automation, control systems, and process instrumentation to ensure system integration, operational continuity, and technology modernization.
• Provide strategic oversight for the design, maintenance, and upgrade of plant PLCs, HMIs, data acquisition networks, and control logic across continuous and batch processing systems.
• Partner with manufacturing and process engineering teams to establish control philosophies, operating instructions, and automated solutions that improve process capabilities and throughput.
• Ensure process control architectures maintain high operational stability, network security, and instrumentation accuracy.
• Accountable for the functionality and reliability of the facilities server  

Capital Project Implementation:

• Direct all phases of site capital projects, facility investments, and equipment installations following standard investment guidelines.  
• Oversee project engineering workflows including scoping, cost estimation, risk assessments, bid evaluation, Management of Change (MOC) processes, and commissioning.   
• Ensure accurate design and lifecycle maintenance of plant technical documentation, including P&IDs, process flow diagrams, electrical schematics, and as-built drawings.   
• Provide engineering oversight for site utility systems (boilers, air compressors, chillers, power distribution, and HVAC).
• Provide monthly updates of the status of all capital projects 

Maintenance & Asset Reliability Leadership:

• Responsible for the overall direction and effective coordination of the Maintenance Department activities. This position ensures that work is properly planned and safely executed in a timely manner for plant reliability
• Utilize a Computerized Maintenance Management System to review KPI’s, Develop WO plans, manage backlog, and ensure PM/CM optimization
• Establish, monitor, analyze, and own KPI’s.  Use the data to identify, prioritize, and focus improvement efforts
• Identify reliability risks and vulnerabilities, and mitigate with capital plans, redundancies, or with emergency plans
• Ensure Work orders are scheduled and completed per the weekly/ bi-weekly maintenance schedule
• Oversee training and development of all departmental staff to ensure technicians are meeting minimum qualifications and are progressing on-schedule
• Perform Root Cause Analysis for equipment/systems to improve reliability and performance
• Select, train, and manage new hires in the department to maintain a motivated, diverse-skilled, cross-trained, and technically capable work group
• Accountable for cost control for the maintenance function, including establishing and meeting fixed cost objectives, along with other metrics including overtime, PSM compliance, and training compliance
• Serve as Process Owner for GP-09 - Air Liquide’s Industrial Management System (IMS) Group Procedure for Maintenance, as well as related elements of the Quality Management System
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, IMS, and quality system requirements related to the maintenance and design of utilities
• Sets expectations for adherence to policies and procedures and safety standards. Drives for high standard of employee morale, ethics and respectful treatment and behavior

Facilities Oversight:

• Manage emergency maintenance needs affecting utilities or buildings and grounds
• Manage the upkeep of the buildings and grounds
• Remain up to date on recommendations from Boiler Condition Assessment Reports.
• Remain up to date on recommendations from Vibration Analysis
• Manage the selection of contractors, and manage the relationships
• Manages maintenance cost and quality of contracted services
• Responsible for effectively managing daily maintenance work and shutdowns and for managing the customer interface with Operations counterparts

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Are you a MATCH?

Required  Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical discipline .
• Candidates must have valid employment authorization in the U.S. and must not require visa sponsorship now or in the future. This position is not open for non-immigrant visa sponsorship.
• 8+ years of engineering and maintenance leadership experience within an industrial manufacturing or chemical continuous processing environment.
• 5+ years of direct management experience leading multidisciplinary technical teams (engineers, project managers, and maintenance leaders).
• Demonstrated track record of leading capital project execution, process control initiatives, and plant reliability strategy .
• Knowledge of HVAC systems, air compressors, chillers, water coolers, boilers, steam and condensate piping systems, power distribution, nitrogen generators, DI water systems, and fire protection systems
• Knowledge of industrial codes and standards ex: ASME, NBIC, OSHA, NFPA.
• Working knowledge of processing facility equipment including piping, mechanical, electrical (including PLC’s), pneumatic and hydraulic systems of equipment is necessary.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of machinery vibration analysis methods, thermography, condition assessment via instrumentation and field experience performing each or other NDT methods.
• Work Management Process (WMP) understanding.
• Detail work/job planning and work hazard analysis.
• Failure mode analysis and failure analysis techniques.

Our Differences make our Performance

At Air Liquide, we are committed to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces the diversity of our employees, our customers, patients, community stakeholders and cultures across the world.

We welcome and consider applications from all qualified applicants, regardless of their background. We strongly believe a diverse organization opens up opportunities for people to express their talent, both individually and collectively and it helps foster our ability to innovate by living our fundamentals, acting for our success and creating an engaging environment in a changing world.