Maintenance Manager

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Job Summary

Papa John’s Quality Control Center Department: Maintenance Reports to: Center Manager Supervises: Maintenance team leads, technicians, and maintenance planner Position purpose Lead the maintenance organization to maximize equipment reliability, protect employee and food safety, and support consistent product quality and dependable production. Build a capable, accountable team and a disciplined maintenance program that supports site readiness for BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety certification and ongoing compliance with its requirements. Leadership and team development

• Set clear responsibilities, equipment ownership, work priorities, and performance expectations for each shift. Provide technicians with the tools, parts, procedures, and support needed to complete work correctly.

• Coach team leads and technicians, address performance concerns, support hiring, and maintain effective coverage for production and planned maintenance.

• Link job expectations to a documented skills assessment. Establish individual training plans, verify demonstrated competence, and support progression in mechanical, electrical, controls, and food safety skills.

• Review shift passdowns daily with the planner or designated lead. Assign owners and due dates, communicate outstanding risks, and verify that required follow-up is completed.

Equipment reliability and work management

• Own preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs for plant, processing, utility, and mobile equipment. Prioritize work by employee safety, food safety, equipment criticality, and production impact.

• Maintain an accurate asset structure, maintenance schedules, equipment history, and backlog in the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Review preventive maintenance (PM) effectiveness after repairs, failures, and equipment changes.

• Require timely documentation of planned and unplanned maintenance in work orders, including findings, actions taken, parts used, labor, downtime, and follow-up needs. Use shift passdowns to communicate equipment conditions and reference work orders; retain maintenance history in the CMMS.

• Coordinate maintenance windows with Production, Sanitation, and Quality Assurance. Verify work quality, inspect equipment condition, investigate repeat failures, and confirm corrective actions prevent recurrence.

Food safety and BRCGS responsibilities Partner with Quality Assurance, Sanitation, and Operations to implement the site food safety plan and maintain effective engineering controls. Serve as the maintenance representative during certification preparation, internal inspections, and external audits.

• Maintain documented, risk-based inspections for equipment deterioration that could introduce foreign material. Address worn belts, damaged screens, loose fasteners, seals, guards, and other identified contamination risks.

• Control temporary repairs through documented assessment, authorization, monitoring, and a defined deadline for permanent correction. Escalate overdue or ineffective repairs.

• Protect ingredients, exposed product, packaging, and food contact surfaces during maintenance. Control tools, removed parts, metal fragments, lubricants, chemicals, and engineering debris.

• Ensure documented post-maintenance hygiene clearance and inspection by authorized personnel before equipment returns to operation. Coordinate cleaning, sanitation, and verification according to site procedures.

• Use suitable maintenance parts and materials. Where direct or indirect product contact poses a risk, require food-grade lubricants and materials with known allergen status. Maintain approved specifications and supporting records.

• Review equipment purchases, modifications, and installations for hygienic design, cleanability, maintenance access, and food contact suitability. Complete documented commissioning and update PMs, drawings, operating procedures, and training before release.

• Support calibration and verification programs for weighing, temperature, detection, and other critical devices. Coordinate maintenance of food safety controls without bypassing required authorization, testing, or release procedures.

• Maintain audit-ready records and complete assigned corrective actions with root cause analysis and effectiveness checks. Escalate maintenance conditions that may affect product safety, quality, or legality immediately.

Employee safety and facility systems

• Enforce site safety procedures, including hazardous energy control, machine guarding, electrical safety, hot work, contractor permits, and other applicable safe work practices. Verify personnel are trained and authorized for assigned tasks.

• Maintain facility systems, including silo and ingredient delivery, mixing, conveying, tray washing, compressed air, refrigeration, HVAC, utilities, docks, doors, drainage, and safety equipment.

• Direct contractor work, verify qualifications and site induction, and coordinate safe execution, contamination controls, work acceptance, and required documentation.

• Stop or restrict unsafe equipment operation and immediately escalate food safety concerns. Follow the site’s authorized process for equipment restart and product disposition.

Planning, budgeting, and continuous improvement

• Manage maintenance spending, labor, overtime, service agreements, and spare parts inventory within approved authority. Maintain critical spares and address obsolete components and supply risks.

• Develop equipment restoration plans and capital recommendations supported by condition, risk, reliability, and lifecycle cost. Manage assigned projects through safe installation and acceptance.

• Report maintenance results and risks to site leadership. Use CMMS and validated production data to identify losses, improve work planning, and share effective practices across QCCs.

Required qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent, with technical training or equivalent practical experience in industrial maintenance.

• At least five years of progressive industrial maintenance experience, including at least two years leading technicians or maintenance teams in a manufacturing environment.

• Food or beverage manufacturing experience with practical knowledge of good manufacturing practices (GMPs), sanitation, contamination prevention, and maintenance documentation.

• Working knowledge of mechanical and electrical systems, motor controls, variable frequency drives (VFDs), programmable logic controller (PLC) troubleshooting, conveyors, pumps, bearings, pneumatics, and hydraulics. Ability to read electrical and mechanical drawings.

• Experience using a CMMS to manage PMs, work orders, maintenance history, backlog, and performance measures.

• Demonstrated ability to coach employees, coordinate multiple departments, investigate failures, manage priorities and costs, and maintain accurate records.

Everybody loves pizza, which means they also love the people who are behind the scenes working to deliver it. This is complex and challenging work – but let’s face it – it’s also pizza! If you want a fulfilling career with a company that’s always moving forward, we’re the right place.

Papa John's is a Federal Contract employer who participates in E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility for each new team member. For more information please view the following PDFs: E-Verify Poster (English) - Right to Work Poster (English) - E-Verify Poster (Spanish) - Right to Work Poster (Spanish) Papa John's is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. For more information please click on the following PDF. See terms & conditions for site use.