Maintenance Lead

Tirlán, is a world-class food and nutrition co-operative, with a diverse portfolio of quality ingredients, leading consumer and agri brands. Tirlán owns leading brands such as Avonmore, Kilmeaden Cheese, Millac, Solmiko, Truly Grass Fed, Premier Milk, Wexford, mymilkman.ie and GAIN Animal Nutrition.

We nurture a talented team across Ireland, the US, MEA and China, delivering annual revenues of over €3 billion, and over 2,300 people to manage our network of 11 processing plants and 52 agri branches. Our purpose is to nourish the world, while safeguarding our environment for future generations.

Primary Purpose

The Maintenance Lead is responsible for leading the planning, coordination, scheduling, and execution of all maintenance activities across the site. The role acts as the key interface between Engineering, Production, Quality, Stores, Finance, and external contractors to ensure equipment reliability, regulatory compliance, and the safe, timely completion of maintenance work.

The Maintenance Lead will provide day-to-day leadership to maintenance teams and contractors while driving continuous improvement in maintenance planning, scheduling, asset reliability, and maintenance system performance.

Key Responsibilities

Safety, Quality and Compliance

• Promote and ensure compliance with all Health, Safety, Environmental (EHS), GMP, and Quality standards across the site.
• Lead by example in the application of safe working practices and use of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• Ensure maintenance activities are completed in accordance with site SOPs, risk assessments, permit systems, and regulatory requirements.
• Identify and report hazards, unsafe conditions, and improvement opportunities.
• Participate in site audits, inspections, and investigations as required.

Maintenance Planning and Coordination

• Act as the primary point of contact between Maintenance and all other departments regarding maintenance activities.
• Review, prioritize, and coordinate all maintenance work requests.
• Lead the planning and scheduling of Preventive Maintenance (PM), Corrective Maintenance (CM), Predictive Maintenance (PdM), and breakdown activities.
• Coordinate production downtime requirements with Operations to optimise equipment availability and maintenance efficiency.
• Ensure maintenance schedules are communicated effectively to all stakeholders.
• Plan and coordinate shutdowns, outages, and major maintenance events.
• Ensure all maintenance activities are properly scoped, planned, and resourced before execution.

Leadership and Team Management

• Provide day-to-day leadership and direction to maintenance technicians and contractors.
• Allocate and prioritise maintenance activities to ensure safe and efficient execution.
• Coordinate labour resources and contractor support to meet maintenance objectives.
• Support the development of maintenance team capability through coaching, training, and knowledge sharing.
• Foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

Asset Reliability and Continuous Improvement

• Drive equipment reliability and maintenance best practices across the site.
• Review maintenance performance data and identify opportunities to reduce downtime and improve asset performance.
• Lead root cause analysis activities for recurring equipment failures.
• Support reliability improvement projects and maintenance optimisation initiatives.
• Ensure all new equipment is incorporated into the maintenance management system with appropriate maintenance strategies and PM schedules.

Maintenance Systems and Documentation

• Maintain and continuously improve the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
• Ensure all maintenance records, equipment histories, and work orders are accurate and up to date.
• Manage maintenance documentation and ensure compliance with change control procedures.
• Track and monitor maintenance KPIs including:
• PM Compliance
• Schedule Compliance
• Equipment Reliability
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
• Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
• Maintenance Costs

Budget and Cost Control

• Support the Engineering Manager in managing maintenance expenditure and budget performance.
• Coordinate purchasing requirements for maintenance materials, spare parts, services, and specialist equipment.
• Monitor maintenance spend and provide regular cost reporting.
• Support engineering projects through effective cost tracking and resource planning.
• Work closely with Stores and Finance teams to ensure cost-effective maintenance execution.

Contractor Management

• Coordinate and oversee contractor activities on site.
• Ensure contractors comply with site safety, quality, and technical requirements.
• Manage contractor work orders and verify completion of contracted maintenance activities.
• Monitor contractor performance and support continuous improvement in contractor management processes.

Major Accountability

The Maintenance Lead is accountable for the safe, efficient, and effective coordination of all site maintenance activities, ensuring equipment reliability, operational performance, regulatory compliance, and effective utilisation of maintenance resources.

The role owns the maintenance planning and scheduling process while providing leadership to maintenance personnel and contractors to achieve business objectives.

Education & Experience

Essential

• Third-level qualification in Engineering, Maintenance, Mechanical, Electrical, Automation, or related discipline.
• Experience within a manufacturing, food, pharmaceutical, or industrial maintenance environment.
• Experience using CMMS systems and maintenance planning processes.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating maintenance activities and resources.

Desirable

• Supervisory or team leadership experience.
• Experience in GMP-regulated environments.
• Knowledge of reliability-centred maintenance practices.
• Project coordination or shutdown planning experience.

Key Competencies

• Leadership and Team Coordination
• Maintenance Planning and Scheduling
• Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Communication and Stakeholder Management
• Asset Reliability and Continuous Improvement
• Budget and Cost Awareness
• CMMS and Data Management
• Organisational and Prioritisation Skills
• Contractor Management
• Safety Leadership