Director, Maintenance Engineering
Novolex · Lake Forest, IL
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Reliability
- Base pay
- $180k–$200k
- Travel
- 50%
- Experience asked
- 15+ years
- Industry
- Packaging
- Posted
- 14 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level reliability role at Novolex (packaging) in Lake Forest, IL.
- They ask for
- 15+ years
- Base pay
- $180k–$200k
- Day to day
- about 50% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 9, 2026
Reliability Engineer roles in Illinois: typical posted base $120k–$143k. This one lists $180k–$200k.
Median of the low and high ends of 16 live postings that list pay, out of 25 reliability engineer openings in Illinois, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Illinois plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 24 other live reliability postings in Illinois.
- Base pay
- About 57% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- More than usual (15+ vs 5+)
Typical $102k–$140k, from 15 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Root cause 36%
- Team leadership 32%
- SAP 24%
- EHS / safety 24%
- PLC 24%
- TPM 20%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Reliability team at Novolex
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- The posting says about 50% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Novolex in Lake Forest
1 other open role at this site.
- Director, Engineering PMO · Manufacturing · Director+
Full description from NovolexAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Position Summary
The Director, Maintenance provides enterprise leadership for maintenance strategy, reliability performance, asset management, and maintenance execution across Novolex manufacturing operations. This role is accountable for developing the enterprise maintenance strategy, identifying the organizational capabilities and resource needs required to execute, advancing a standardized maintenance operating model, improving equipment uptime and asset reliability, strengthening preventive and predictive maintenance practices, and building scalable maintenance capability across plants. The Director partners closely with Operations, Engineering, EH&S, Procurement, Finance, and business leadership to align maintenance priorities, improve operational performance, reduce unplanned downtime, and support safe, reliable, and cost-effective manufacturing execution.
Key Responsibilities
- ◆Champion a safety-first maintenance culture and ensure compliance with company safety standards, maintenance procedures, equipment standards, and applicable regulatory requirements.
- ◆Develop and lead the enterprise maintenance strategy, including preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, reliability improvement, asset lifecycle management, spare parts strategy, maintenance performance governance, and implementation priorities.
- ◆Assess and identify organizational needs required to execute the maintenance strategy, including capability gaps, resource requirements, role clarity, skills development, governance routines, and support model requirements.
- ◆Partner with plant leadership and maintenance teams to improve equipment uptime, reduce unplanned downtime, increase mean time between failures, and improve maintenance execution discipline across manufacturing sites.
- ◆Drive standardization of maintenance systems, processes, metrics, tools, work order practices, planning and scheduling routines, and reliability best practices across the manufacturing network.
- ◆Build organizational capability through leadership development, coaching, technical capability building, succession planning, and performance management for maintenance leaders and teams.
- ◆Provide executive-level escalation support for complex equipment reliability, maintenance execution, asset performance, spare parts, contractor, and operational continuity issues.
- ◆Partner with OEM’s, Engineering, Capital Projects, Operations, and plant leadership to support equipment design reviews, maintainability, startup readiness, commissioning, stabilization, and operational handoff for capital initiatives.
- ◆Lead cross-functional maintenance projects from business case and scope development through planning, execution, commissioning, operational handoff, and benefits realization, with accountability for safety, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and performance outcomes.
- ◆Develop and manage strategic OEM partnerships and service agreements to establish standardized preventive and predictive maintenance programs, recommended service intervals, technical support models, critical spare parts requirements, training, and equipment performance expectations.
- ◆Develop and maintain maintenance performance reporting, including key metrics related to uptime, downtime, work order completion, preventive maintenance compliance, maintenance cost, asset reliability, and contractor performance.
- ◆Collaborate with Procurement and Finance to optimize maintenance spend, spare parts inventory, vendor performance, contractor utilization, and service agreements.
- ◆Perform additional duties as assigned.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Company Overview
Why Choose Us?
Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including foodservice, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.
Our Sustainability Commitment
The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.
Job Description
Essential
- •15+ years of progressive experience in maintenance leadership, reliability engineering, manufacturing operations, engineering, technical operations, or related manufacturing support functions.
- •8+ years of leadership experience leading multi-site maintenance, reliability, technical operations, or manufacturing support organizations.
- •Demonstrated success improving equipment reliability, uptime, preventive maintenance compliance, maintenance execution, asset performance, and maintenance cost effectiveness.
- •Experience implementing preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance, planning and scheduling, work order management, and maintenance performance governance.
- •Strong working knowledge of manufacturing equipment, plant utilities, maintenance systems, spare parts management, contractor management, and plant operations.
- •Experience using maintenance management systems, reliability tools, documentation systems, and performance reporting processes.
- •Demonstrated project management experience leading multi-site maintenance initiatives, OEM service programs, equipment installations, commissioning, and operational handoffs.
- •Experience managing OEM and contractor relationships, preventive maintenance programs, service-level expectations, technical training, warranty administration, and vendor performance.
- •Strong executive leadership, communication, stakeholder management, organization