Senior Reliability Engineer

Alphia is a leading manufacturer of pet food – extruded (dry kibble) and baked (treats).  Alphia has 7 plants across the United States.   

JOB PURPOSE: 

The Senior Reliability Engineer ensures that systems, products, or equipment operate reliably over their expected lifespan by identifying potential failures, mitigating risks, and optimizing performance. 

The Senior Reliability Engineer role is to identify and manage asset reliability risks. They track the production losses and abnormally high maintenance cost assets, then find ways to reduce those losses or high costs. Senior Reliability Engineer develops a plan to eliminate or reduce the losses through root cause analysis, obtains approval of the plan and facilitates the implementation. 

Within the Alphia organization, this plays a critical role by applying maintenance & reliability principles to predict, prevent, and mitigate failures. They collaborate with maintenance, engineers, manufacturing teams, safety teams, and quality assurance to enhance system reliability.  The responsibilities include conducting failure mode analysis, developing reliability models, and driving continuous improvement. 

You should have a strong understanding of reliability engineering and statistical analysis, as well as a thorough knowledge of maintenance management and manufacturing processes.  Success in this role requires strong technical capability in maintenance, and the ability to drive cross-functional improvements that enhance safety, quality, service, and total delivered cost. 

This position is also responsible for developing and executing strategic and tactical Maintenance and Reliability plans across multiple manufacturing sites. 

DESCRIPTION OF ESSENTIAL DUTIES: 

Core Responsibilities 

Reliability Engineers are responsible for maintaining and improving the reliability and performance of equipment, systems, and processes. Key duties include: 

• Designing and implementing reliability strategies to enhance system performance and longevity  

• Conducting Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to proactively identify potential failures  

• Perform reliability analyses such as FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), RCM (Reliability-Centered Maintenance), and root cause analysis (RCA) to identify potential system failures and recommend corrective actions. 

• Know the process and help to conduct 5S projects as it pertains to Maintenance and MRO. 

• Developing preventive and predictive maintenance plans based on data analysis  

• Monitoring system performance and identifying reliability issues using statistical tools and reliability modeling  

• Evaluate equipment failure modes and utilize engineering experience and training to develop solutions for eliminating/mitigating potential failure  

• Monitor equipment performance and evaluate equipment history and failure trends to determine sources of poor component performance  

• Lead targeted initiatives to improve throughput, yield, labor utilization, and equipment reliability 

• Identify, evaluate, and introduce new processes/technologies, automation solutions, and equipment upgrades to enhance capability and efficiency 

Leadership Skills 

• Coordinate internal stakeholders, contractors, and equipment suppliers to ensure alignment and accountability. 

• Providing technical guidance and training to team members and maintaining reliability metrics and reports  

• Ensure compliance with all safety, quality, environmental, and regulatory standards  

• Technical support for factory and corporate maintenance functions.   

• Development and review of technical and operational standards.   

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Technical Expertise 

• Provide support to maintenance, engineering, operations, safety, CI, and quality teams 

• Participate in problem solving and root cause analysis for production issues. 

• Collaborate with Finance to quantify savings, build business cases, validate financial impact, and ensure benefits are sustained in the P&L. 

• Partner with all manufacturing locations to develop Reliability Best Practices and to collaboratively work through common issues.  

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:  (To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required). 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical or Manufacturing Engineering 

• 5-7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, continuous improvement, or related roles within a manufacturing environment (CPG or food manufacturing a plus) 

• Knowledge of reliability engineering methodologies, such as RCM (Reliability-Centered Maintenance) 

• Strong knowledge of reliability metrics such as MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), and availability. 

• Experienced in FMEA, RCM, fault tree analysis, and root cause analysis techniques. 

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information and make data-driven decisions. 

• Experience extracting and structuring data from CMMS and MES/plant performance systems (e.g., Redzone, Ignition, data historians) and building analytical insights and reports using tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel 

• Proficiency in reliability analysis tools/software and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders. 

• Willingness to travel up to 40% to other Alphia plants or vendors within the US, with potential irregularity depending on specific projects or engineering activities. 

• Willingness to work off-shifts and weekends at times depending on specific projects 
   

WORK ENVIRONMENT: (The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions). 

• The employee may be frequently exposed to allergens and/or airborne particles in the production area.  Production employees are exposed to temperatures ranging from 50 to 115 degrees, depending on the season and workstation, and maybe working near moving mechanical parts. Occasional exposure to outdoor weather conditions may occur.  

• The noise level in the work environment may be loud while production equipment is running.  

Personal Protection Equipment (including, but not limited to, boots, gloves, safety glasses, and/or face shields) is required during various processes in the production area. Ear plugs and bump caps are required at all times in the production area.