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Director of Recycling Maintenance and Reliability
The opportunity:
The Director of Maintenance and Reliability provides leadership and strategic support across Smurfit Westrock’s recycling plant network. This role leads the manufacturing support team and partners with plant and corporate leadership to drive operational excellence, standardization, and continuous improvement.
The position is responsible for supporting recycling operations with a focus on safety, preventative maintenance, production and process improvement, waste reduction, quality enhancement, cost reduction and capital planning. The Director ensures consistent application of manufacturing best practices and standards while advancing cost reduction, cost avoidance, safety improvements, and productivity initiatives.
How you will impact WestRock:
- Leads and develops the Regional Maintenance Reliability Support Team supporting recycling plant operations.
- Establishes a culture of safety, ownership, quality, and operational performance. Supports this with metrics, engagement and accountability of others and self.
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Drives continuous improvement initiatives across recycling plants, including:
- Preventative maintenance and reliability programs
- Production efficiency, uptime and throughput improvement
- Process optimization and operational standardization
- Waste reduction, yield improvement and fiber recovery
- Safety, quality, cost and productivity performance
- Supports implementation and sustainment of standardized manufacturing systems and best practices.
- Utilizes KPIs, benchmarking, and root cause analysis to identify performance gaps and implement corrective actions.
- Provides leadership and alignment for maintenance standards and asset reliability strategies.
- Partners with Division and Plant Leadership in the development of capital planning strategies focused on safety, productivity, cost reduction and cost avoidance.
- Partners with Operations and Finance on capital prioritization, business case development and execution support.
- Champions safety, environmental compliance, and quality standards across recycling operations.
- Collaborates with plant leadership and corporate teams to ensure alignment of manufacturing strategy and execution.
What you need:
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Technology, or a related field (required).
Experience
- Minimum of 10 years of manufacturing experience in recycling or related industrial operations. Experience in recycling operations preferred.
- Proven leadership experience supporting multiple manufacturing sites or regional operations.
- Demonstrated success driving continuous improvement, standardization, and cost reduction initiatives.
Knowledge & Skills
- Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, preventative maintenance, and reliability best practices.
- Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.
- Solid financial and capital planning acumen.
- Effective leadership, communication, and change management skills.
- Ability to travel, sometimes on short notice, up to 50% of the time.
What we offer:
- Corporate culture based on integrity, respect, accountability and excellence
- Comprehensive training with numerous learning and development opportunities
- An attractive salary reflecting skills, competencies and potential
- A career with a global packaging company where Sustainability, Safety and Inclusion are business drivers and foundational elements of the daily work.
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