Operations Technician – Membrane Filtration

fairlife, LLC is a Chicago-based nutrition company that creates great-tasting, nutrition-rich and dairy products to nourish consumers.

With over $3B in annual retail sales, fairlife’s portfolio of delicious, lactose-free, real dairy products includes: fairlife® ultra-filtered milk; Core Power® High Protein Shakes, a sports nutrition drink to support post-workout recovery; fairlife® nutrition plan™, a nutrition shake to support the journey to better health.

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola company, fairlife, LLC has been recognized by both Fast Company and Nielsen for its industry leading innovation.

To learn more about fairlife and its complete line of products, please visit fairlife.com.

The construction of fairlife's manufacturing facility in Webster, NY is underway. This state-of-the-art, 750k sq ft, greenfield plant is expected to be operational in late 2025 and will lay the foundation for fairlife's next phase of growth as the leading dairy nutrition provider. While coupling the industry’s latest technologies and fairlife's operational excellence to build this world-class facility, fairlife plans to hire 250 new employees and bring in approximately 5 million lbs. of milk a day, with room to grow over the coming years.

job purpose:

To support and optimize manufacturing operations by maintaining equipment, ensuring product quality, and adhering to safety and compliance standards. The Operations Technician plays a critical role in executing production processes, troubleshooting technical issues, and contributing to continuous improvement initiatives to achieve efficiency, reliability, and organizational goals.

 

This is a full-time Mon-Fri days position with responsibilities that include receiving troubleshooting calls on off hours and occasional off-shift work to facilitate training.

 

responsibilities:

• Diagnose and resolve equipment issues promptly, performing minor repairs using appropriate tools. Reset machines, understanding temperate flows and escalate malfunctions to supervisors to expedite complex repairs.
• Monitor, using visual observation of gauges and listening to mechanical sounds to ensure the equipment works properly; work quickly and efficiently to ensure production flows smoothly.
• Develop and maintain SOPs and training materials to standardize processes across shifts and improve operational consistency.
• Support cleaning the packaging equipment and surrounding areas to maintain an audit-ready condition during production
• Create metrics and measures to support the optimization of the equipment and process
• Conduct first-level preventive maintenance (PM) activities, ensuring machinery operates at peak efficiency. Review and optimize PM schedules and Master Sanitation Schedules (MSS) to drive productivity.
• Review and align on approval of Preventive Maintenance (PM) and Master Sanitation Schedule MSS for effectiveness and drive productivity.
• Collaborate in in Root-Cause-Analysis (RCA), Continuous Improvement (CI) and metric development
• Participate in production trials, prepare for inspections and audits ensuring all necessary paperwork is complete for internal and regulatory agencies
• Provide technical support, leadership, and mentorship to team members, including applying complex troubleshooting techniques utilizing all resources available, including HMI, P&IDs, etc.
• Provide and enable a safe environment by following all safety procedures: including the use of safety equipment to produce a quality product that meets all quality specifications
• Follow all safety, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and workplace rules
• Work as the technical liaison between the plant, engineering and suppliers as needed

 

skills/qualifications required:

• 18 years or older
• High School diploma or General Education Degree (GED) is required Bachelor's degree preferred
• Basic computational skills required. Simple math and reasoning required
• Experience with high-speed production lines (fast-paced production environment)
• Strong mechanical aptitude with experience in equipment troubleshooting and maintenance.
• Familiarity with SOPs, preventive maintenance, and sanitation standards.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced production environment.
• Commitment to safety, quality, and continuous improvement.

 

working conditions and physical requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully per