Plant Engineering Director

Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Compensation: $160,000–$225,000 base salary + bonus

The Opportunity

We are seeking an accomplished Plant Engineering Director to lead Engineering and Maintenance for a large, fast-paced manufacturing operation in Sioux Falls, SD.

This is a senior plant leadership role with responsibility for equipment reliability, maintenance strategy, capital projects, engineering, continuous improvement, and team development. The successful candidate will combine strong technical expertise with the leadership ability to build high-performing teams and improve plant performance.

You will play a critical role in advancing Preventive and Predictive Maintenance, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), equipment reliability, and operational efficiency while ensuring safety, food safety, environmental, and quality standards are maintained.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership for the plant's Engineering and Maintenance functions, with a strong focus on reliability, safety, productivity, and continuous improvement.
• Lead major capital projects from concept through commissioning, ensuring projects are delivered safely, on schedule, within budget, and with minimal disruption to production.
• Develop and execute plant maintenance and reliability strategies, including Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance, TPM, and equipment reliability programs.
• Identify recurring equipment and operational issues, determine root causes, and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Improve plant performance by establishing and monitoring meaningful KPIs, including equipment reliability, downtime, supplier performance, maintenance effectiveness, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
• Lead resource planning and engineering initiatives across a complex manufacturing environment involving mechanical, electrical, controls, instrumentation, and automation systems.
• Provide technical leadership in troubleshooting complex plant and equipment problems.
• Lead, coach, and develop engineering and maintenance leaders and their teams, creating clear accountability and high performance.
• Partner with Operations, HR, Safety, Quality, and other plant functions to support production objectives and long-term facility improvements.
• Promote a culture centered on safety, accountability, collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field and 10+ years of engineering/maintenance experience, including significant engineering management experience; equivalent combinations of education and experience may be considered.
• Candidates with a Master's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related discipline and 8+ years of relevant experience will also be considered.
• Minimum 5 years of leadership experience, including responsibility for team development and performance management.
• Strong technical knowledge of mechanical and electrical systems, including areas such as PLCs, instrumentation, controls, and mechanical engineering.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineering and maintenance functions within a large manufacturing environment.
• Strong knowledge of Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance, TPM, work-order systems, reliability programs, and maintenance best practices.
• Experience managing capital projects and capital budgets.
• Working knowledge of SAP and Microsoft Office.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking, troubleshooting, and root-cause problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong organizational, planning, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic manufacturing environment and build productive relationships across functions.
• Flexibility to support plant operations outside standard business hours when required.

Preferred Experience

Experience within food manufacturing, meat processing, pork processing, or another highly regulated continuous-production environment is strongly preferred.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of two of the most critical functions within a major manufacturing operation—Engineering and Maintenance—while influencing capital investment, equipment reliability, operational performance, and the long-term technical direction of the facility.

For an engineering leader who enjoys solving complex plant problems, developing strong teams, and turning maintenance and reliability into a competitive advantage, this is a role with significant scope and impact.