Maintenance Manager - Precision Manufacturing
Location: Grapevine, Texas - Hybrid/on-site, with occasional work at other Dallas-Fort Worth-area facilities
Engagement: Contract-to-hire
Expected Conversion: Approximately six months or earlier
Compensation: $95-$110 per hour
Engagement Options: W-2 with access to medical benefits, PTO, and 401(k), or C2C through the candidate's own LLC
Start Date: Flexible based on candidate availability
Company Overview
Our client is a leading precision manufacturing organization producing mission-critical, high-tolerance components and assemblies for the aerospace, defense, and other highly regulated industries. The organization operates complex machining environments where equipment reliability, quality, safety, and on-time delivery are essential.
Position Summary
The Maintenance Manager will lead maintenance and reliability functions supporting a large, complex precision manufacturing operation. This individual will oversee maintenance for CNC and production equipment, including wire and sinker EDM machines, turning centers, vertical and horizontal mills, multi-axis machining centers, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), and related assembly-support systems.
The Maintenance Manager will be responsible for developing a planned, preventive, predictive, and data-driven maintenance culture that improves equipment uptime, protects production schedules, and supports stringent aerospace and defense quality requirements.
This position also offers the opportunity to integrate maintenance teams, processes, systems, and standards across multiple operations while building a cohesive, high-performing maintenance organization.
Key Responsibilities
Maintenance Operations and Equipment Reliability
- Lead maintenance and reliability activities supporting precision manufacturing operations and related facilities.
- Integrate and standardize maintenance procedures, documentation, workflows, and CMMS practices across operations and teams.
- Design, implement, and continuously improve preventive maintenance programs covering mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, coolant, and filtration systems.
- Advance predictive and condition-based maintenance practices using vibration analysis, thermal imaging, oil analysis, spindle monitoring, and other appropriate technologies.
- Establish reliability-centered maintenance practices and rapid breakdown-response protocols that reduce unplanned downtime, extend equipment life, and protect production commitments.
- Oversee the maintenance and troubleshooting of EDM equipment, CNC machine tools, turning and lathe centers, vertical and horizontal mills, multi-axis machining centers, CMMs, and associated assembly systems.
- Develop equipment-specific maintenance strategies that maximize EDM performance and availability, including wire and sinker platforms.
- Coordinate with OEMs, field-service engineers, contractors, and suppliers on major equipment rebuilds, spindle replacements, controls upgrades, and specialized repairs.
Team Leadership and Cross-Functional Partnership
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing maintenance team by assigning work, providing technical guidance, establishing accountability, and supporting performance management.
- Bring multiple maintenance teams and operating practices together under common standards, priorities, and service expectations.
- Identify training needs and strengthen team capabilities related to CNC controls, PLC troubleshooting, machine-tool systems, and safe maintenance practices.
- Establish appropriate on-call and emergency maintenance coverage protocols to support production across operating shifts.
- Partner closely with Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, and Operations leaders to troubleshoot chronic equipment issues, improve utilization, support production goals, and protect on-time delivery.
- Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering on machine capability studies, process changes, new-equipment qualification, equipment installation, and production-line reconfiguration.
Quality Systems and Documentation
- Ensure maintenance practices support applicable aerospace and defense quality-management requirements related to equipment maintenance, calibration, process control, documentation, and traceability.
- Coordinate with Quality on equipment and measurement-system calibration, including CMMs, gauges, torque tools, and measuring instruments.
- Create, maintain, and improve maintenance work instructions, standard operating procedures, equipment-history records, and calibration documentation.
- Support non-conformance and corrective-action investigations related to equipment or process failures, including root-cause analysis and corrective-action planning.
- Maintain accurate work orders, equipment histories, preventive maintenance records, and calibration documentation within CMMS and applicable ERP systems.
Facilities, Safety, and Regulatory Compliance
- Oversee facility infrastructure and utilities, including HVAC, electrical distribution, compressed air, coolant and filtration systems, cranes, forklifts, pumps, motors, safety equipment, and related systems.
- Ensure maintenance activities comply with OSHA, EPA, and applicable state and local requirements, including LOTO/TAGOUT, machine safeguarding, PPE, hazardous-waste handling, chemical safety, and environmental controls.
- Participate in EHS inspections, safety audits, and incident investigations, and drive assigned corrective actions through resolution.
- Manage contractor safety and compliance for outside maintenance, construction, and facility work.
Budget, Planning, and Continuous Improvement
- Develop and manage the maintenance budget, including labor, spare parts, tooling, contractor services, and capital-equipment recommendations.
- Build a critical-spare-parts strategy that balances cost control with equipment uptime and business-continuity requirements.
- Establish and monitor KPIs such as uptime, downtime, Mean Time Between Failures, Mean Time to Repair, preventive maintenance compliance, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, maintenance cost, and recurring failure trends.
- Use CMMS analytics and reliability data to prioritize work, eliminate chronic failure modes, and strengthen maintenance planning and scheduling.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives utilizing Lean, Six Sigma, Total Productive Maintenance, Kaizen, reliability-centered maintenance, and other relevant methodologies.
- Support capital projects, equipment installations, production-line reconfigurations, and facility expansion or consolidation initiatives.
Required Qualifications
- At least seven years of progressive maintenance experience within precision manufacturing, including three or more years in a supervisory or management role. Ten or more years of progressive experience is strongly preferred.
- Direct, hands-on experience maintaining and troubleshooting CNC machine tools, with strong EDM experience required, including wire and/or sinker equipment.
- Experience supporting turning centers, vertical and horizontal mills, and four-axis and/or five-axis machining platforms in a high-precision manufacturing environment.
- Working knowledge of CNC control systems such as Fanuc, Siemens, and Heidenhain.
- Ability to troubleshoot servo drives, spindle systems, PLCs, and machine-tool electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, and mechanical systems.
- Demonstrated success designing and improving preventive and predictive maintenance programs and using reliability metrics to improve equipment performance.
- Proficiency with CMMS platforms for work-order management, preventive maintenance scheduling, equipment-history tracking, and maintenance reporting.
- Experience working within AS9100, ISO 9001, or an equivalent quality-management-system environment.
- Proven ability to lead organizational change, integrate teams and processes, manage maintenance budgets and contractors, and partner effectively with Operations, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Quality leaders.
- Strong knowledge of industrial safety requirements and practices, including OSHA standards, LOTO/TAGOUT, PPE, and machine safeguarding.
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of technical education and maintenance-management experience. An associate degree with eight or more years of relevant experience is also acceptable.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience within aerospace, defense, space, or another highly regulated precision manufacturing environment.
- Direct exposure to AS9100 Rev D requirements, internal audits, and controlled, traceable production environments.
- Experience with CMM maintenance, qualification, and calibration.
- Knowledge of Statistical Process Control, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, Total Productive Maintenance, and reliability-centered maintenance.
- Experience with ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Epicor, or similar platforms integrated with maintenance operations.
- CMRP, CRL, or a comparable maintenance and reliability certification.
- Familiarity with ITAR-controlled defense manufacturing environments.
About Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry unleashes potential in people, teams, and organizations. We work with our clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers. To learn more, please visit Korn Ferry at www.Kornferry.com
