Maintenance Manager

About Zep Inc.

Zep Inc. is a leading manufacturer of cleaning solutions for businesses and consumers with operations across the U.S, Canada, and Europe. Our purpose is to make the planet cleaner, safer, and more productive. To fulfill our purpose, we focus on understanding and solving cleaning needs for consumers, as well as business customers across a variety of segments including transportation, industrial, institutional, and food & beverage. We also have a strong presence in the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) segment, where we develop products to help consumers and businesses maintain a clean and safe environment. Our products can be found online and at retail shelves at outlets like Home Depot, Amazon, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Grainger, HD Supply, Walmart, and many others. We market our products under well recognized and established brand names, such as Zep®, Enforcer®, Misty®, TimeMist®, TimeWick, and Country Vet®. Zep was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. In 2021, Zep became the official cleaning partner of Atlanta United FC.

Job Description:

Key Responsibilities

• Maintenance Leadership & Reliability
  • Lead, develop, and supervise maintenance technicians and contractors, establishing clear expectations for safety, quality, productivity, and accountability.
  • Develop and maintain preventive and predictive maintenance programs to improve equipment reliability and extend asset life.
  • Establish maintenance priorities based on safety, production requirements, equipment criticality, and business impact.
  • Lead root cause analysis of recurring failures and implement corrective actions to prevent repeat downtime.
  • Manage maintenance planning, scheduling, work orders, equipment history, and spare parts inventory.
  • Coordinate emergency repairs and planned shutdowns while minimizing disruption to production.
• Production & Process Equipment
  • Ensure reliable operation of bottle fillers, conveyors, bottle-handling systems, cappers, palletizers, and related packaging equipment.
  • Oversee maintenance and troubleshooting of compound mixing equipment, agitators, pumps, motors, gearboxes, seals, valves, and associated process systems.
  • Support equipment changeovers, line adjustments, and process improvements to reduce jams, leaks, filling inaccuracies, and packaging defects.
  • Identify and implement equipment upgrades, automation improvements, and reliability projects that improve throughput, maintainability, and product quality.
  • Maintain equipment documentation, maintenance procedures, and critical spare parts requirements.
• Safety, Compliance & Environmental Responsibility
  • Ensure maintenance activities comply with applicable OSHA requirements, environmental regulations, and company policies.
  • Enforce lockout/tagout (LOTO), machine guarding, electrical safety, confined-space procedures, and applicable hot-work and permit requirements.
  • Ensure maintenance work involving chemicals, pressurized systems, and rotating equipment is conducted using appropriate risk assessments and protective measures.
  • Support process safety and management-of-change requirements where applicable to equipment modifications or process changes.
  • Maintain a clean, organized, and safe maintenance shop and work environment.
• Budget & Continuous Improvement
  • Develop and manage the maintenance budget, including labor, contractors, repairs, tooling, and spare parts.
  • Monitor key performance indicators, including equipment downtime, preventive maintenance compliance, mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR), and maintenance cost.
  • Use data-driven problem solving and continuous improvement methods to improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
  • Evaluate contractors, vendors, and service providers to ensure quality, cost effectiveness, and timely execution.
  • Collaborate with Production and Engineering on capital projects, equipment installations, commissioning, and reliability improvements.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Associate or Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Maintenance, or a related technical field preferred; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• Five or more years of industrial maintenance experience, including experience leading maintenance teams in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience with preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, equipment reliability, and maintenance planning.
• Experience with automated packaging lines, conveyors, filling and capping equipment, palletizers, and industrial mixing systems strongly preferred.
• Chemical manufacturing or process-industry experience preferred.

Technical & Leadership Skills

• Strong knowledge of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and motor-control systems.
• Familiarity with PLC-controlled equipment, instrumentation, sensors, variable-frequency drives, and industrial automation.
• Experience with CMMS platforms, maintenance KPIs, spare parts management, and root cause analysis.
• Working knowledge of industrial safety requirements, LOTO, machine guarding, and safe maintenance practices.
• Strong leadership, communication, organizational, problem-solving, and project management skills.
• Ability to prioritize competing maintenance demands and work effectively with cross-functional teams.

Our Values

At Zep, we have developed a set of values focused on bringing even greater cohesion to our workplace. As part of this plan, we introduced a values framework called S.P.E.E.D. to align with our purpose of making the planet cleaner, safer, and more productive.

• Stewardship: We continuously improve the safety of our people and products, and we protect the planet by innovating solutions to reduce our environmental impact.

• Passion for Problem Solving: We listen to our customers and actively work to find solutions for unique situations. We think creatively to innovate and seize opportunities that will drive growth and make all our customers’ and consumers’ lives better.

• Empowerment: We encourage and lead our people to be accountable by equipping them to make decisions and own the outcome

• Expertise: We create innovative solutions and partnerships that are relevant to service our communities and customers.

• Doing the Right Thing: We expect our people to understand ethical boundaries and be inclusive of other backgrounds, ideas, and perspectives. Demonstrating honesty, respect and integrity in all actions is always expected.

Zep is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are eligible for consideration for employment without regard to disability, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected by law.