Reliability Engineer

At Link Snacks, we show up hungry, roll up our sleeves, plaid or otherwise, and dive straight into the hard work. We don’t hide from challenges; we hunt them down. We push harder, move faster, and take the kinds of big swings that built this business in the North Woods of Wisconsin four decades ago.

We’re everyday people who deliver extraordinary results. Innovation, creativity, and urgency aren’t buzzwords, they’re expectations. And just like the real protein snacks we make across our global house of brands: Jack Link’s®, Lorissa’s™ Organic Snacks, Golden Island®, BiFi®, Peperami® and KOOEE!® to name a few, there’s nothing artificial about us. What you see is exactly what you get: humble, gritty, passionate people who show up every day ready to not just be a participate in the meat snack industry that the Link Family created, but to move faster, innovate harder and keep raising the bar so high, the rest of the world needs a ladder just to see it.

Dominating this space across the world takes a team. A team that runs together, succeeds together, and celebrates together. A team that’s full of relentless energy and spirit that can only be fueled by one thing: a fist full of our delicious meat snacks.

Real Meat Protein. Real People. Real Results. THAT is Link Snacks.

The Reliability Engineer is responsible for improving the reliability, maintainability, operational performance, food safety integrity, and lifecycle management of manufacturing assets across the facility. This role serves as the technical leader for failure elimination, asset health management, equipment-based food safety risk reduction, startup excellence, preventive maintenance optimization, and reliability improvement initiatives.

The Reliability Engineer works closely with Operations, Maintenance, Controls, FSQ, Sanitation, and Operational Excellence to improve asset performance, reduce losses, eliminate repeat failures, and increase operational stability.The Reliability Engineer is expected to spend significant time in production areas identifying equipment losses, validating root causes, and implementing sustainable corrective actions.

Primary Responsibilities

Asset Reliability Management Lead reliability efforts for critical manufacturing assets

• Ovens
• Packaging Equipment
• Material Handling Systems
• Detection Systems
• Utilities

Responsibilities include:

• Asset health monitoring
• Reliability strategy development
• Failure trend analysis
• Life cycle management
• Equipment criticality assessments

Failure Elimination Lead structured problem-solving for recurring failures.

Responsible for:

• Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Repeat failure investigations
• Corrective action implementation

Expected Results:

• Reduced downtime
• Increased MTBF
• Elimination of repeat failures

Asset Criticality Program Develop and maintain criticality rankings for all plant assets.

Identify:Critical Assets

Equipment impacting:

• Food safety
• Throughput
• Safety
• Regulatory compliance
• Develop risk-based maintenance strategies based on asset criticality.

Preventive Maintenance Optimization Evaluate and improve PM effectiveness.

Responsibilities include:

• PM optimization
• PM frequency evaluation
• Condition-based maintenance development
• Predictive maintenance deployment
• Ensure PMs address actual failure modes.

Food Safety & Quality Reliability Partner with FSQ to develop and maintain an Equipment-Based FSQ Prevention Program. Focus Areas:

Product Contact Equipment

• Belts
• Conveyors
• Rollers
• Guides

Packaging Systems

• Seal systems
• Vacuum systems
• Detection systems

Environmental Systems

• Refrigeration
• Air handling
• Condensation control
• Develop controls that prevent food safety risks from equipment deterioration.

Startup Excellence Program

Support and improve startup performance across all assets. Responsibilities include:

• Startup readiness audits
• Startup failure analysis
• Startup loss tracking
• Startup standardization

Target:

• Right First Time Startup >95%

Reliability Data Analysis

Analyze equipment performance data. Monitor:

• MTBF
• MTTR
• OEE losses
• Downtime drivers
• PM compliance
• PM effectiveness
• Failure frequency
• Generate actionable recommendations based on data analysis.

Predictive Maintenance Program Support development and expansion of predictive maintenance initiatives.

Technologies may include:

• Vibration analysis
• Thermography
• Ultrasonics
• Oil analysis
• Motor circuit testing
• Assist in identifying deteriorating equipment before failure occurs.

Asset Team Participation: Serve as technical reliability leader on Asset Teams.

Provide:

• Failure analysis
• Reliability planning
• Equipment risk assessment
• Capital recommendations

Capital Planning Support: Support Engineering and Maintenance leadership in developing capital plans.

Identify opportunities related to:

• Reliability improvements
• Obsolescence risks
• Capacity constraints
• FSQ risk reduction
• Develop business cases and ROI analyses.

Controls and Automation Reliability: Partner with Controls Engineering to improve automation reliability.

Focus Areas:

• Sensor failure reduction
• Network reliability
• PLC stability
• Detection systems
• Startup controls

Continuous Improvement: Support TPM and Operational Excellence initiatives.

Lead improvements in:

• Reliability systems
• Equipment performance
• Loss elimination
• Equipment ownership

Leadership Expectations: Although not a direct supervisory role, the Reliability Engineer is expected to influence and lead through technical expertise.

Expected to:

• Drive accountability
• Challenge ineffective practices
• Influence cross-functional teams
• Facilitate technical decision making
• Lead reliability initiatives

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Reliability Metrics

• MTBF improvement
• MTTR reduction
• Downtime reduction
• Repeat failure elimination

Asset Performance

• OEE improvement
• Throughput improvement
• Startup reliability

Maintenance Performance

• PM effectiveness
• Predictive maintenance effectiveness
• Planned maintenance percentage

Food Safety

• Equipment-related FSQ incidents
• Foreign material events
• Equipment-related quality deviations

Financial

• Maintenance cost reduction
• Reliability project ROI
• Capital project effectiveness

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or a related technical discipline
• 3 + years manufacturing reliability experience
• Experience with industrial production equipment
• Experience leading root cause investigations
• Experience with PM optimization
• Root Cause Analysis
• FMEA
• Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
• Asset Criticality Analysis
• CMMS Systems
• Reliability Metrics

Preferred Qualifications: 

• 7 + years manufacturing reliability experience
• Food manufacturing experience
• RTE manufacturing experience
• TPM implementation experience
• PM/PdM development experience
• SAP PM
• Fiix
• EAM Systems
• Power BI
• Vibration Analysis
• Thermography

The starting salarie for this role is $100,000.00 - $115,000.00. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, and candidate skill set and experience. Base pay is just one component of  Link Snacks Total Rewards package for Team Members. Other rewards may include annual incentive and program-specific awards. Link Snacks provides a variety of benefits to eligible Team Members, including medical, dental and vision benefits, life and disability insurance, 401k participation, paid holidays, and paid time off.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a Team Member to be successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job the Team Member is regularly required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The Team Member is occasionally required to stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms. The Team Member must occasionally lift and/or more up to twenty-five pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those a Team Member encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The work environment is a plant/office setting with varying degrees of temperatures and noise levels. Exposure to manufacturing equipment movement and wet/slippery floors. However, the vast amount of work is conducted in a climate-controlled office. Travel may be required.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER:
Link Snacks provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic that is protected by federal, state or local law.

E-VERIFY:
Link Snacks is participant in the federal E-Verify program to confirm the identity and employment authorization of all newly hired employees.  For information about the E-Verify program, please visit:  http://www.uscis.gov/e-verify/employees

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.