Unit Maintenance Manager

Unit Maintenance Manager – Dry Starch

About Ingredion:

Join Ingredion, where innovation impacts lives worldwide! Without even realizing it, you’ve experienced our work in your favorite chocolate, your pet’s food, the paper you write on, and your everyday snacks. As a global powerhouse across more than 60 industries, we harness the potential of natural ingredients to transform lives. Whether you’re just starting your career or bringing years of experience, there's a place for you here to make a real difference. Be part of our team that values a wide range of perspectives and is committed to shaping a better world with every product we create.

Location: Argo Plant. Bedford Park, IL

Workplace type: On Site

As the Unit Maintenance Manager you will be responsible for leading all maintenance and reliability activities within the unit, ensuring safe operations, asset integrity, and optimal equipment performance. This role oversees preventive and predictive maintenance strategies, manages short- and long-term maintenance planning, and drives continuous improvement initiatives. The manager partners closely with Operations, Reliability, Procurement, and Engineering to manage asset risks, optimize spare parts inventory, and ensure compliance with safety, environmental, and quality standards. Additional responsibilities include budget management, contractor oversight, root cause analysis facilitation, and promoting a collaborative, performance-driven team culture.

What you will do: 

• Establishing and maintaining safe work practices and environmental compliance. Contributing to the achievement of plant safety goals. Maintaining safe working conditions throughout the unit.
• Being accountable for the execution of the short- and long-term maintenance planning, scheduling, and continuous improvement activities.
• Analyzing relevant Key Performance Indicators to identify deviations and initiate corrective actions.
• Managing asset risk in collaboration with the reliability team to ensure condition-based monitoring compliance.
• Developing and managing a unit maintenance budget.
• Collaborating with procurement, reliability and engineering to determine spare parts inventory.
• Initiating Management of Change (MOC) process as necessary.
• Responsibility for vendor selection of non-core contractors from the approved vendor list.
• Providing necessary bid packages to include scope of work, materials and equipment as required by Procurement staff.
• Developing and implementing improvements to maintenance management practices.  Driving cost awareness, control and reduction programs to meet or improve upon the financial goals of the unit and plant while protecting investment in current and future capital assets.
• Using SAP, Prometheus, and other maintenance systems in support to drive the overall maintenance activities and continuous improvements.
• Facilitating root cause problem elimination sessions.
• Working with contractor leaders to oversee safety and quality of work and achievement of schedule.
• Partnering with contractor leaders and site leaders to review workload, skills of manpower, and manage labor resources.
• Maintaining an atmosphere of teamwork and joint accountability with the production units, recognizing mutual goals, accountabilities, and needs as well as building consensus in a positive manner with customers, suppliers, and team members.
• Leading reliability, preventative maintenance and condition-based monitoring efforts and improvements.
• Working closely with Operations in developing, implementing, and evaluating risk of strategies to ensure the success of the Plant. Support Performance management activities and site development efforts to enhance the capability and provide ongoing personal development.

What you will bring: 

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, or Reliability preferred. CMRP certification desirable.
• 7+ years in maintenance and reliability
• Experience in managing a maintenance department for a manufacturing environment including utilities specific equipment, steam turbine generators, IR and Joy air compressors, gas boiler systems
• Experience in maintenance reliability, preventative maintenance, condition-based monitoring, and root cause problem elimination techniques.
• Knowledge of SAP system as it pertains to maintenance and budgeting, a plus.
• Use of KPIs for decision making and corrective action.
• Experience in creating and adhering to department budget.
• Computer literate with knowledge of Microsoft Office Software applications (i.e. Excel, Word, etc.).
• Capac