Mold Maintenance Expert (Mold Maintenance Tech)

Position Overview: The Mold Maintenance Expert is responsible for the safe, reliable condition and production readiness of the company's plastic injection molds. This is a hands-on position focused on preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, inspection, and continuous improvement of molds used in automotive production. The position supports production by identifying mold-related problems quickly, completing high-quality repairs, and coordinating with Production, Process Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, and outside tool shops when specialized work is required. The Mold Maintenance Expert maintains accurate mold history, ensures critical spare components are available, and helps prevent repeat failures, unplanned downtime, quality defects, and damage to company and customer tooling. Key Responsibilities: 1. Preventive Maintenance and Mold Readiness ? Perform scheduled preventive maintenance on injection molds according to the maintenance plan, production history, cycle count, and mold condition. ? Inspect mold cavities, cores, parting lines, vents, gates, runners, ejector systems, slides, lifters, wear surfaces, guide components, and safety features for wear or damage. ? Inspect and maintain cooling circuits, hot-runner components, heaters, thermocouples, hydraulic systems, pneumatic systems, electrical connections, seals, fittings, and manifolds. ? Clean, lubricate, protect, and preserve molds before storage and confirm that each mold is production ready before release to the molding department. ? Complete incoming and outgoing mold inspections and identify any repair, cleaning, or preservation work required before the next production run. ? Maintain organized mold storage, maintenance tools, benches, and work areas to protect tooling and support safe, efficient work. Required Skills and Qualifications ? Minimum 7 years of hands-on injection-mold maintenance, mold repair, toolmaking, or related precision tooling experience in a manufacturing environment. ? Strong experience with complex plastic injection molds; automotive, large-tonnage, two-shot, hot runner, valve-gate, hydraulic, and pneumatic tooling experience is preferred. ? Demonstrated ability to disassemble, inspect, troubleshoot, repair, assemble, and validate production molds independently. ? Ability to read and interpret mold drawings, component prints, electrical and fluid schematics, tolerances, and dimensional inspection results. ? Skilled in the safe use of precision measuring equipment, hand tools, polishing and spotting tools, grinders, drill presses, and common mold-repair equipment. Working knowledge of mold steels, surface finishes, fits and clearances, cooling systems, venting, gating, ejection, slides, lifters, and hot-runner systems. ? Experience with welding, manual machining, or CNC support is preferred; ability to recognize when outside specialist support is required is essential. ? Strong troubleshooting, documentation, communication, and organizational skills, with the ability to respond calmly and effectively to production downtime. ? High school diploma or equivalent is required; Tool and Die Maker apprenticeship, journeyman certification, technical degree, or equivalent practical experience is preferred. ? Ability to operate an overhead crane, forklift, and lifting equipment after company training and