Maintenance Lead Technician (1st shift)

Chelten House Products LLC

Bridgeport, NJ

Pay: $42-$49/hr

**Maintenance Lead**

**Who We Are:**

• Chelten House Products, Inc. is a fourth-generation, family-owned, food industry manufacturer with facilities in Swedesboro, New Jersey. We are an industry leader widely recognized for our commitment to creating the finest tasting pasta sauces, salad dressings, salsas, ketchups, and other sauces and blends

**What We Have:**

• Benefits such as medical, vision and dental 1st of the month following start date

• Company-wide perks and employee appreciation events

• Supplemental benefits including life insurance and 401(k) contributions

• Team training sessions and advancement opportunities

• Paid time off and paid holidays

• Annual performance evaluation

**What We Need:**

• We need a Maintenance Lead who is a highly skilled, hands-on member of the Maintenance team responsible for advanced troubleshooting, repair, preventive maintenance, and equipment reliability activities while serving as a first-line technical resource for Maintenance Technicians on the assigned shift.

• The Maintenance Lead is expected to possess a higher level of mechanical and equipment knowledge than the Maintenance Technician and to assist Technicians in diagnosing complex equipment failures, determining appropriate repair approaches, and safely returning equipment to service.

• This is a working Lead position and is not a substitute for the Maintenance Supervisor. The Lead supports the Supervisor through technical coordination, communication, and escalation but does not independently administer discipline, conduct formal performance evaluations, approve time off, or make staffing decisions.

**What You Will Do:**

• Perform all essential Maintenance Technician responsibilities while demonstrating a higher level of proficiency in mechanical troubleshooting, equipment repair, preventive maintenance, and equipment reliability.

• Serve as the first technical point of support for Maintenance Technicians when equipment problems require additional troubleshooting or technical expertise.

• Diagnose complex mechanical failures and assist Technicians in identifying root causes and appropriate corrective actions.

• Provide hands-on technical guidance during equipment breakdowns, repairs, changeovers, start-ups, and other maintenance activities.

• Help coordinate Technician response to equipment issues based on production priorities, equipment criticality, safety, food safety, and available resources.

• Ensure appropriate communication occurs with Operations during equipment downtime, repair, testing, and return-to-service activities.

• Monitor the progress of significant repairs and communicate equipment status, repair progress, resource needs, and emerging concerns to the Maintenance Supervisor.

• Recognize when a problem exceeds the Lead's authority, available resources, or technical capability and promptly escalate to the Maintenance Supervisor.

• Support execution of preventive, predictive, corrective, and planned maintenance activities and help ensure work is completed to established standards.

• Review completed repairs and support safe, effective equipment start-up and return to service.

• Assist Technicians with interpretation of equipment manuals, mechanical drawings, blueprints, schematics, and technical procedures.

• Support troubleshooting of mechanical systems including pumps, motors, gearboxes, conveyors, pneumatic systems, hydraulic systems, valves, bearings, seals, and other production and ancillary equipment.

• Identify recurring equipment failures and communicate reliability concerns and recommended follow-up actions to the Supervisor and appropriate Maintenance resources.

• Utilize the CMMS system to complete assigned work, document repairs, record equipment conditions and parts usage, and identify required follow-up work.

• Provide hands-on coaching, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing to Maintenance Technicians while reinforcing established maintenance procedures.

• Reinforce safe work practices, Lockout/Tagout requirements, GMPs, food safety requirements, and proper use of PPE.

• Support continuous improvement, asset care, and equipment reliability initiatives in partnership with Maintenance, Engineering, and Operations.

• Maintain assigned tools, equipment, work areas, and PPE and perform other duties as assigned by management.

**Escalation & Communication:**

The Maintenance Lead is expected to exercise sound judgment in determining when an equipment or operational issue requires Supervisor involvement. The Lead must promptly escalate situations involving:

• Safety concerns or potential employee injury.

• Food Safety, GMP, product contamination, or product integrity concerns.

• Significant or extended production downtime.

• Repeated equipment failures where the underlying cause has not been identified or corrected.

• Repairs requiring resources, outside contractors, parts, or authorization beyond the Lead's authority.

• Electrical, controls, u