Reliability Lead

Hershey

Lawrence, KS

Why Hershey: At The Hershey Company, our culture is rooted in purpose and inspired by Milton Hershey’s enduring vision that business should create opportunity for others. Through our commitment to corporate philanthropy, we create positive impact by supporting communities, helping children thrive, and operating as a business for good. This includes our deep and long standing partnership with Milton Hershey School, where we invest in education, workforce readiness, and hands on engagement to help students succeed beyond the classroom. Supported by strategic grantmaking, product donations, cross brand collaboration, and strong employee volunteerism, Hershey offers a place to work where making a difference—locally and globally—is part of how we do business every day. Job Location: Lawrence, KS About The Hershey Company The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is an industry-leading snacks company known for making more moments of goodness through its iconic brands. With a strong portfolio across chocolate, confectionery, and salty snacks, Hershey delights consumers every day. Our beloved brands include Hershey’s, Reese’s, KitKat®, Dots Pretzels, Lesser Evil, Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Ice Breakers, and more. At Hershey, we are committed to making a meaningful difference in the communities where we live, work, and do business. This commitment originated with our founder, Milton Hershey, and continues to shape who we are today. Guided by our employee value proposition, Lead Today. Create Tomorrow, we empower our people to drive impact now while shaping what comes next. Our One Hershey mindset brings teams together across functions, geographies, and businesses, enabling us to operate with speed, collaboration, and shared purpose. The Hershey Company is proud to be recognized as a top employer in the United States, reflecting our commitment to our people, culture, and purpose. How will you fit in the big picture? The Lawrence, KS plant is focused on building a world-class maintenance organization that maximizes preventive and predictive maintenance practices. As the Reliability Lead , you will play a critical role in driving equipment reliability, maintenance excellence, and continuous improvement within an assigned business unit. You will lead maintenance planning and reliability strategies that maximize asset performance, improve operational efficiency, and support Hershey’s manufacturing journey. This role offers the opportunity to influence plant performance, develop long-term maintenance strategies, and collaborate across operations, engineering, and technical teams to deliver sustainable results. What will you do? Lead overall maintenance and asset reliability activities for assigned production lines or process areas, including complex installation, repair, maintenance, and calibration work across manufacturing and utility systems. Manage maintenance planning and scheduling through SAP work-order prioritization, coordinated technical activities, and maintenance schedules that minimize production impact. Drive preventive and predictive maintenance programs by analyzing equipment and maintenance data, applying advanced diagnostics, and implementing corrective actions. Lead root cause analysis, defect handling, troubleshooting, and breakdown elimination to resolve complex equipment issues and improve reliability. Partner with Technical Assurance on asset management processes, inventory accuracy, maintenance cost effectiveness, and compliance with safety, quality, and technical standards. Support site capital planning and lead capital or major technical improvement projects, including planning, monitoring, and coordination of required work. Participate in daily operational huddles, report maintenance performance metrics, identify risks, and drive corrective actions and continuous improvement. Coach mechanics and operators to strengthen equipment ownership, autonomous maintenance practices, troubleshooting capability, and technical skills. Minimum Requirements Experience: 3+ years of relevant maintenance, reliability, or manufacturing experience. Experience with reliability-centered maintenance, preventive and predictive maintenance, Lean Manufacturing, TPM, and continuous improvement. Experience with SAP-PM or a similar CMMS platform; SAP S/4 experience preferred. Experience leading projects, driving change, influencing cross-functional teams, and applying Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methodologies. Advanced troubleshooting and diagnostic capability with a strong focus on safety, quality, and technical standards. Preferred skills or credentials include Certified Maintenance Reliability Professional (CMRP), RCA training, predictive maintenance, maintenance planning and scheduling, reliability engineering, safety management, capital project management, and coaching/team development. Education: Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline preferred; Mechanical Engineering preferred. Equivalent combinations