Corporate Maintenance & Continuous Improvement Director

Overview

OVERVIEW: 

The Director ot Maintenance & Continuous Improvement is responsible for establishing and executing the PistonAutotnotive strategy maintenance reliability, asset management, equipment uptime, and operational excellenceacross PA manufacturing locations.This leadership role drives sustainable business performance by developing standardized maintenance systems,advancing continuous improvement capability, and partnering with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain,Finance, Human Resources, and Plant Leadership to improve salety, quality, delivery, productivity, equipmentreliability, and cost performance. The Director partners with the Piston Group Director of Lean/SCI to ensure alignment of Lean principles, CI roadmaps,governance routines, and capability-building methods. While maintaining clear accountability for Piston Automotivemaintenance excellence, reliability systems, and PA execution results.

 

Piston Automotive wasn’t just founded to make things. It was founded to make things better. And that begins with building better teams solely dedicated to achieving excellence at every level of execution through a combination of experience, expertise, and a deep seeded passion for what we do. Our assemblies consistently set the standard because our people consistently raise the bar.

 

Why Piston Automotive?

Competitive Wages, Paid Holidays & Vacation, Medical & Rx Plans, Dental & Vision Plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, Employee Assistance Program, Life & Disability Coverage, 401K with Company Match, Tuition Reimbursement , Vehicle and Product Discounts

Responsibilities

Enterprise Alignment, Strategy & Governance

- Develop and execute Piston Automotive strategy for Maintenance Excellence and Continuous Improvement inalignment with business objectives, operational priorities, and corporate expectations.-Translate Piston Group Lean/SCl strategy, PPS standards, annual priorities, and governance expectations intopracticel PA deployment plans, maturity roadmaps, and scorecards.- Partner with the Piston Group Director ot Lean/SCI, PA Operations leadership, Engineering, Quality, and PlantLeadership to align strategy with tactics and avoid duplication of enterprise-level Lean ownership.- Establish PA govemance routines for maintenance reliability, SCI execution, project prioritization, progressreviews, and results reporting across all Piston Automotive facilities.- Drive organizational change by fostering accountability, collaboration, standardization, operational discipline, anda sustainable culture ot continuous improvement.

 

Maintenance Excellence & Asset Reliability

- Establish standardized maintenance systems, reliability expectations, asset management practices, andperformance measures across Piston Automotive facilities.- Lead deployment and sustainment of preventive and predictive maintenance practices, equipment reliabilityinitiatives, spare parts discipline, downtime reduction methods, and standardized maintenance work processes.- Partner whth Manufacturing Engineering and Plant Maintenance teams to improve equipment uptime, launchreadiness, process capability, maintainability, and lifecycle asset performance.- Support capital planning, maintenance budgeting, equipment readiness, and operational risk reduction throughdata-driven maintenance strategies and cross-functional leadership.

 

Operational Excellence & SCI Value Creation

- Lead Piston Automotive deployment of Lean and SCI practices, including Kaizen events, value stream mapping,5S, standardized work, problem-solving workshops, and waste elimination activities.- Own PA SCI cost-savings goal deployment, project identificatio, execution tracking, benefit validation, read-across, and results reporting in alignment With corporate and PA financial objectives.- Use operational metrics, customer scorecards, BOS/MBR inputs, and plant KPIs to identity trends, prioritizeimprovement opportunities, gnd drive sustainable business results.- Ensure improvement initiatives enhance safety, quality, delivery, productivity, customer satisfaction, costperformance, and overall equipment effectiveness.- Develop and sustain practical standards, procedures, dashboards, and visual management routines that makeperformance gaps visible and drive disciplined follow-up.

 

People, Capability & Culture Development

- Provide leadership, coaching, and development to PA maintenance, engineering, and continuous improvementleaders.- Build internal capability through standardized training, mentoring, train-the-trainer approaches, knowledgesharing, and succession planning.- Serve as a coach and change agent by helping leaders and teams apply Lean thinking, maintenance bestpractices, root cause analysis, and structured problem solving in daily Operations.- promote cross-plant collaboration, benchmarking, best-practice sharing, and read-across Of successfulmaintenance and SCI solutions.

 

Cross-Functional Business Partnership

- Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, IT, Finance, Human Resources, ProgramManagement, and Plant Leadership to support strategic initiatives and operational objectives.- Partner with executive and plant leadership to establish long-term operational priorities, performance objectives,and improvement strategies that support profitability, growth, launch execution, and customer performance.- Support successful launch of new equipment, technologies, and manufacturing processes by ensuringmaintenance readiness, operational standards, training, and sustainment plans are in place.• Participate in management reviews related to operational performance, maintenance effectiveness, qualitysystems, and continuous improvement progress.

 

Governance, Compliance & Risk Management- Ensure compliance With corporate policies, regulatory requirements,  safety expectations, and applicable industrystandards related to maintenance, equipment, and operational excellence.- Champion a proactive safety culture through risk identification, standardized work practices, layeredaccountability and continuous improvement in workplace safety.- Establish gcwernance processes that ensure consistent execution, accountability, escalation, and measurableperformance across Piston Automotive facilities.- Periodically review the suitability and effectiveness of PA maintenance and continuous improvement systems withappropnate leadership and functional stakeholders.

 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIESDirectly and/or functionally leads Piston Automotive Maintenance Excellence and Continuous Improvement resourcesas assigned. provides coaching, direction, priorities, and performance expectations for PA site and central resourcessupporting maintenance reliability and SCI execution.

Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Business, or a related technical discipline.- Minimum Of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, maintenance, engineering.operations, or continuous improvement including multi-site responsibility.- Demonstrated success leading maintenance reliability asset management, operational excellence, Leantransformation, or SCI execution in a manufacturing environment.- Deep working knowledge of Lean methodologies, such as Kaizen, value stream mapping, 5S, standardizedroot cause analysis, and structured problem solving.- Proven ability to translate enterprise strategy into plant-level execution plans, governance routines, metrics, andmeasurable financial or operational outcomes.- Strong facilitation, coaching, communication, change-management, and cross-functional influence skills.- Business acumen with experience using operational metrics, financial data, and project tracking to supportdecision-making and performance improvement.- Experience applying maintenance exellence, equipment reliability, preventive/predictive maintenance, andasset-performance practices.- Experience Microsoft Office products and data-driven performance manegement tools.- Ability to travel regularly to Piston Automotive facilities, up to approximately 50% based on business needs.

• PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS- MBA or advanced degree preferred.- Lean certification, Lean Sensei certification, Six Sigma Black Belt, CMQ/OE, CQE, or equivalent preferred.- Background in Operations, Engineering, Quality, Suppty Chain, Maintenance, Manufacturing Engineering, orProgram Launch preferred.- Experience developing Lean/SCI roadmaps, maturity assessments, CI training systems, and cross-site best-practice deployment preferred