Plant Maintenance Manager (Food Manufacturing)

Company: Dessert Holdings Inc.
Location: Pembroke
Posted on: January 21, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Job Description PLANT MAINTENANCE MANAGER (Food Manufacturing) Dessert Holdings is the leading premium dessert company in the world. We craft artisanal, scratch-made desserts at scale, combining culinary innovation with the finest real ingredients. With a rich heritage spanning seven distinctive brands, we bring unmatched expertise and tailored solutions to our Retail and Foodservice partners. Dessert Holdings is looking for a Plant Maintenance Manager at our Pembroke, NC facility to lead Maintenance practices across the plant to ensure reliability, maintainability, and availability of plant resources with a specific focus on overall deterioration losses. Ensuring that people safety and food safety come first, we are looking for a confident leader with strong technical and communication skills with the ability to engage and build relationships across all teams, including the ability to coach and empower team members to take ownership for driving out losses at all levels. RESPONSIBILITIES Accountable for overall reliability and availability of equipment and control of maintenance labor and expense budget within the plant. Responsible for leading execution of capital plan and executing small infrastructure projects . Identify, select, and develop talent to ensure "bench strength" and continued development and advancement of top talent within the department. Accountable for ownership of the Maintenance Department SWP Board, including the ability to coach leading and lagging KPIs to all levels of work force. Implement and maintain standards for breakdown elimination, planning & scheduling, lubrication, Predictive Maintenance, maintenance information systems, shop tool/facilities and inventory management. Partner with plant leadership and other teams to ensure equipment improvements are achieved through preventive and predictive maintenance tools and techniques, with a focus on eliminating specific losses around equipment deterioration. Supporting Autonomous Maintenance Standard work practices around implementation of safety maps, centerlines, defect handling, clean/inspect/lube tasks to support planned stops to reduce unplanned downtimes. Ability to utilize data analysis in identifying key planned and unplanned losses to direct plants limited resources on top losses. Support, lead and assist with plant projects to ensure delivery of productivity goals. Partner with Engineering team to ensure all RAMS deliverables are complete and implemented to support delivering project resource goals. Partner with Quality team to ensure programs including FSQI, HAACP, GMP and CAPA are followed to deliver high-quality and safe products to our customers. QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or other related technical field, or equivalent Management Experience in Maintenance or Reliability field. 5 years of experience with CMMS systems 7 years of technical manufacturing leadership of teams of at least 3 to 8 individuals Experience leading TPM implementation and/or AM (Autonomous Maintenance) and PM (Preventative Maintenance) implementations General knowledge of USDA, SQF, BRC, GMP, and HACCP, sanitation, quality, and safety programs required. Experience leading continuous improvement projects Ability to influence plant leadership and drive cultural change within the plant in regard to Safety, Food Quality and Reliability PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS CMRP Certification 5 years of experience in food/bakery manufacturing Black/Green belt in Six Sigma and other continuous improvement tools Bilingual English and Spanish About Dessert Holdings Dessert Holdings is a collection of premium dessert companies and brands: The Original Cakerie, Lawler’s Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company, Steven Charles, Dianne’s Fine Desserts, Kenny’s Great Pies, and Willamette Valley Pie Company. Dessert Holdings is owned by Bain Capital, is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, employs more than 3,800 people across ten manufacturing facilities, and is continuing its journey of rapid growth. EEO Statement Dessert Holdings and its related entities provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or any other characteristics protected by law. SC1

Keywords: Dessert Holdings Inc., Fayetteville , Plant Maintenance Manager (Food Manufacturing), Engineering , Pembroke, North Carolina