Manager, Sustaining Equipment and Controls Engineering

At CelLink, our manufacturing equipment is at the heart of what we do. As we scale our Georgetown operation, we're looking for a Manager, Sustaining Equipment & Controls Engineering to own the technical performance, reliability, and continuous improvement of the equipment powering our production floor.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who knows what happens when a critical machine goes down and knows how to get beyond the quick fix to understand why it happened and how to keep it from happening again.

You'll lead sustaining engineers, technicians, and technical resources while partnering closely with Equipment Maintenance, Operations, Automation & Controls, Manufacturing Engineering, and Process Engineering. Your team will keep production equipment reliable today while continuously making it more capable, maintainable, and efficient for tomorrow.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Partner with Equipment Maintenance to build and improve preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance strategies.
• Drive improvements in uptime, OEE, MTBF, MTTR, downtime, and repeat failures.
• Establish troubleshooting, recovery, escalation, and critical-spares strategies for production equipment.
• Use equipment performance data to identify emerging issues before they become production problems.
• Own technical support for released production equipment, processes, tooling, fixtures, and manufacturing systems.
• Lead root-cause investigations and permanent corrective actions for recurring equipment and process issues.
• Identify and implement engineering improvements that increase throughput, reliability, quality, equipment capability, and manufacturability.
• Support equipment modifications, upgrades, qualifications, validations, and engineering changes.
• Maintain a strong presence on the manufacturing floor and understand what's really happening with equipment and production.
• Partner with Operations to prioritize technical resources around safety, quality, delivery, and production needs.
• Establish clear ownership and escalation paths for technical issues across a 24/7 operation.
• Participate in daily production, Gemba, performance, and escalation meetings—and make sure technical issues actually get closed.
• Lead, coach, and develop engineers, technicians, and other technical resources.
• Build technical depth through training, cross-training, qualification programs, troubleshooting standards, and succession planning.
• Develop teams that solve problems using data, engineering judgment, and structured root-cause analysis—not just reactive troubleshooting.
• Build strong partnerships between Engineering, Maintenance, Operations, and technical support teams.
• Turn downtime, equipment losses, recurring failures, and maintenance costs into improvement opportunities.
• Lead initiatives that improve OEE, throughput, equipment availability, process capability, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Establish standard work and technical best practices for troubleshooting, maintenance, and sustaining engineering.
• Support cost reduction through improved reliability, spare-parts strategy, tooling, maintenance practices, and technical resource utilization.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong technical knowledge of automated manufacturing equipment, controls, maintenance, reliability, and sustaining engineering practices.
• Advanced troubleshooting and structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to distinguish short-term containment from permanent corrective action.
• Strong understanding of reliability and maintenance strategies, including preventive/predictive maintenance, RCA, equipment performance, and failure elimination.
• Ability to interpret equipment, production, and reliability data to identify trends, chronic losses, and improvement opportunities.
• Knowledge of OEE, uptime/availability, MTBF, MTTR, downtime, equipment-related quality losses, and maintenance performance.
• Ability to lead root cause investigations and drive corrective actions through closure while preventing recurrence.
• Strong technical judgment and ability to make decisions quickly in a production environment.
• Ability to develop engineers, technicians, and technical teams through coaching, training, cross-training, and qualification.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively with operators, technicians, engineers, maintenance, operations leaders, suppliers, and senior leadership.
• Ability to prioritize competing technical issues and resources while maintaining focus on safety, quality, production, and reliability.
• Strong ownership, urgency, follow-through, and accountability in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Ability to work effectively across functions and shifts, including supporting a 24/7 manufacturing operation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Industrial, Mechatronics, or related engineering discipline—or equivalent directly applicable experience.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing engineering, sustaining engineering, equipment engineering, reliability, equipment maintenance, or related technical operations.
• 3+ years leading engineers, technicians, maintenance personnel, or multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Hands-on experience supporting automated or highly technical manufacturing equipment in a production environment.
• Strong understanding of equipment troubleshooting, preventive/corrective maintenance, reliability improvement, and structured root-cause analysis.
• Experience using equipment and production data to identify losses, prioritize improvements, and drive measurable results.
• Ability to lead technical problem-solving during production interruptions and high-pressure situations.
• Strong communication and organizational skills with the ability to work across technicians, engineers, operators, manufacturing leaders, suppliers, and senior leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in high-volume, highly automated, automotive, electronics, battery, semiconductor, aerospace, or other advanced manufacturing environments.
• Experience leading both engineering and equipment maintenance teams.
• CMMS and reliability-centered maintenance experience.
• Strong knowledge of OEE, MTBF, MTTR, predictive maintenance, condition-based monitoring, TPM, and equipment lifecycle management.
• Experience with PLC-controlled equipment, robotics, industrial automation, motion systems, machine vision, controls, or manufacturing software.
• Experience with equipment commissioning, qualification, production ramp, and transitioning new equipment into sustaining operations.
• Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, or reliability experience.

Working Conditions / Hours / Physical Requirements

Full-time/exempt.

This position directly supports an active, high-volume manufacturing environment operating on a 24/7 schedule. The employee’s regular work area may be located on or immediately adjacent to the manufacturing floor.

This is not primarily a desk-based position. The employee is expected to spend a significant portion of the workday in production and equipment areas observing operations, evaluating equipment condition, troubleshooting technical issues, engaging with technicians, engineers, operators, and manufacturing leaders, and driving resolution of equipment and process constraints.

The employee regularly moves throughout a large manufacturing facility and may stand or walk for extended periods. The position may require climbing stairs, bending, reaching, crouching, kneeling, or working in varied positions while inspecting, troubleshooting, or observing manufacturing equipment.

The role requires the ability to safely work around automated manufacturing equipment, industrial machinery, electrical systems, moving equipment, and other conditions typical of an advanced manufacturing environment.

The position may require work outside normal business hours, including early mornings, evenings, nights, weekends, or holidays, to respond to significant equipment failures, manufacturing interruptions, production ramps, equipment installations, or other business-critical technical issues.

Career Path

Employees in this role may progress to Director, Technical Operations; Director, Manufacturing; Senior Director, Manufacturing or Operations; or other broader operations leadership roles based on business need, sustained performance, leadership capability, technical depth, and demonstrated ability to manage increasing scope.