Ashland Specialty Ingredients, GP
Daily Maintenance Leader
Ashland has an exciting opportunity for a Daily Maintenance Leader to join our Ashland LLC, Specialty ingredients business at our Hopewell, VA site. This is a very visible, significant role within the Company and the Maintenance function. This position will report to Maintenance Manager.
The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:- Leader - Culture change/developer
- Model and exemplify excellent leadership behaviors
- Lead/Facilitate/Develop Tier 1 meetings - report out at Tier 2 mtgs
- Provide coaching, create a high accountability culture
- Ensure adherence to stewardship and quality rules
- Provide operational feedback regarding policies/rules that don't appropriately fit operational capabilities
- Facilitate an effective union/company relationship
- Conduct 1:1 with employees
- Daily Maintenance Workflow Leader
- Own the site daily maintenance work flow process (Identify the need, approval, prioritization, scoping, planning, scheduling, execution, close out, and learning
- Establish decision rights, standard work, meeting cadence, escalation pathways, and performance expectations across maintenance disciplines
- Align daily maintenance execution with plant safety, compliance, quality, production, and cost priorities (in that order)
- Ensure supervisors, planners, schedulers, engineers, crafts, contractors, and Operations work through one disciplined process
- Safety, Compliance & Field Leadership Owner
- Set and reinforce expectations for safe work planning, permitting, LOTO, line breaking, confined space, hot work, lifting, and other high-hazard activities
- Maintain visible field leadership through job-site engagement, verification of controls, and removal of barriers to safe execution
- Ensure maintenance work complies with site procedures, mechanical integrity requirements, environmental obligations, and quality standards
- Lead response to significant safety concerns, events, and changing field conditions
- Work Prioritization & Schedule Governance Leader
- Lead cross-functional prioritization of maintenance work through partnerships with Operations (engineering and operators), Reliability (engineering and SMEs), and Maintenance (engineering and technicians).
- Approve the daily and weekly maintenance schedule and protect schedule stability from avoidable break-ins
- Establish escalation and authorization requirements for emergency work, priority changes, and resource conflicts
- Ensure deferred work has documented risk, ownership, interim controls, and a planned path to completion
- Execution Performance & Resource Leader
- Direct maintenance supervisors and functional leads in safe, efficient execution of the schedule and work priorities
- Balance internal crafts, contractors, tools, equipment, and specialist support across plant priorities
- Review execution progress, emergent constraints, labor loading, backlog exposure, and recovery actions
- Remove cross-functional barriers and escalate decisions as required to maintain team collaboration and engagement
- Planning, Scheduling & Backlog Health Owner
- Set standards for job-plan quality, materials readiness, permits, procedures, drawings, isolation needs, contractor support, and acceptance criteria
- Govern backlog segmentation, aging, risk ranking, planning status, and readiness for scheduling
- Coach planning and scheduling functions on work-package quality, resource leveling, and schedule constructability
- Ensure the weekly schedule is based on ready work, realistic capacity, and operating access
- Reliability & Defect Elimination Strategy Implementor
- Integrate daily maintenance decisions with asset strategies, bad-actor priorities, preventive maintenance, predictive findings, and reliability improvement plans
- Sponsor root-cause analysis and defect-elimination actions for significant or repetitive failures
- Challenge recurring repairs, temporary fixes, and maintenance practices that do not address verified failure causes
- Partner with Reliability, Engineering, and Operations to convert failure learning into sustainable equipment and process improvements
- Maintenance Quality & Work Management Assurance Leader
- Establish expectations for precision maintenance, repair specifications, technical tolerances, inspection points, testing, documentation, and equipment turnover
- Review significant rework, post-maintenance failures, incomplete work orders, and quality escapes
- Ensure work orders capture failure information, labor, materials, findings, and follow-up requirements
- Hold leaders and service providers accountable for technical quality and complete closeout
- Performance, Cost & Contractor Governance Owner
- Maintain a decision-focused maintenance scorecard covering safety, schedule compliance, planned-work percentage, reactive work, backlog, PM/PdM completion, rework, overtime, contractor use, and cost
- Analyze performance gaps and assign corrective actions with owners and due dates
- Govern contractor strategy, service quality, productivity, safety performance, and commercial compliance
- Manage maintenance spending and forecasts while protecting safety, compliance, reliability, and production requirements
- Actively contribute to the organizational goals by taking initiative, executing on goals and focusing on performance and safety
- Improve the organization capacity and capabilities through building collaborative relationships, optimizing diverse talent and utilizing positive communications and influence with others
In order to be qualified for this role, you must possess the following:- 5-10 years in manufacturing supporting Maintenance/Operations
- Demonstrated experience leading maintenance teams in a union environment
- HS Diploma or equivalent
- Experience with maintenance planning, scheduling, and reliability programs in a chemical manufacturing environment
- Demonstrated responsible and ethical behavior at all times
The following skill sets are preferred by the business unit:Perks of working at Ashland:- Comprehensive Benefit package, Medical, Dental and Vision starting on Day 1 for you AND your family
- 401(k) plan with company match
*Third party recruiters and agencies
("Agency") should not contact employees of Ashland or its subsidiaries directly. Any resumes sent by an Agency to a hiring manager, recruiter or submitted to Ashland's career portal are considered unsolicited and property of Ashland. Ashland will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume, unless the Agency has a signed contract with Ashland's Human Resources/Procurement department in advance of submitting a candidate for consideration. Verbal and written approvals will not be considered a valid contract for service.
