Michael Foods, Inc.

Reliability Engineer

Michael Foods, Inc. • $75K — $95K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Engineering preferred or equivalent maintenance experience.
  • 5+ years in manufacturing with experience in maintenance systems or reliability roles.
  • Strong mechanical understanding, ideally with food manufacturing experience.
  • Data-oriented with a focus on process and clear communication of evidence-based recommendations.
  • Self-motivated, proactive, and solutions-driven individual.
  • Collaborative approach, working across teams in maintenance and operations.

Responsibilities

  • Use equipment data to identify issues early and recommend fixes.
  • Partner with teams to address root causes and enhance continuous improvement.
  • Contribute to maintenance plan execution and routine reporting.
  • Leverage CMMS tools to make informed decisions for plant operations.
  • Promote condition-based reliability practices to improve uptime.
  • Champion reliability priorities and guide teams on best practices.

Benefits

  • Visible impact on operations and direct results from your work.
  • Big company resources with a small company culture and flexibility.
  • Cross-functional collaboration opportunities with various teams.
  • Potential for growth into broader engineering and leadership roles.
  • Contribute to creating accessible, quality food for all.
Full Job Description
Location Description

Post Consumer Brands in Battle Creek, Mich., the cereal capital of the U.S., is the company's largest manufacturing plant and home to about 600 team members. When you join the team here, you'll be helping to produce some of the most iconic cereal brands, including Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, PEBBLES cereal, Grape-Nuts and Honeycomb cereal. The Battle Creek plant is also unique as it is home to the original barn where C.W. Post started the Postum cereal company in 1895. The Battle Creek team has deep community roots, supporting the city's Cereal Festival, The Post Foundation, and participating in several volunteer events throughout the year.

Responsibilities

About the Role

At Post Consumer Brands, reliability is more than preventing downtime, it's building a smarter, more resilient operation. As a Reliability Engineer, you'll be the go-to partner for maintenance and operations, using data plus hands-on mechanical understanding to spot risk early, prioritize the right work, and strengthen equipment performance day after day.

You'll blend "in-the-trenches" maintenance knowledge with proactive reliability practices, turning breakdown learnings into prevention, and translating condition insights into action.

Key Responsibilities
  • Use equipment health and performance data to identify issues early, recommend fixes, and help teams prioritize the most impactful work.
  • Partner with maintenance/operations to reduce repeat failures through root cause problem solving and continuous improvement habits.
  • Support daily/weekly execution by contributing to the maintenance plan and schedule (including routine reporting and prioritization inputs).
  • Leverage asset/CMMS tools to turn information into clear, practical decisions for the floor.
  • Apply and promote condition-based reliability thinking to drive uptime and stability.
  • Serve as an owner/champion for reliability priorities within assigned areas-helping teams understand current condition, what "good" looks like, and what to tackle next.

What We're Looking For
  • Bachelor's Degree in Engineering preferred, but we're casting a wide net for the right problem-solver. This could be a traditional engineer, or a seasoned maintenance professional ready to step into a reliability-focused role.
  • Experience in a manufacturing environment with strong mechanical understanding; food manufacturing exposure is a plus.
  • Typically 5+ years in maintenance systems, reliability/asset health work, or maintenance supervision/leadership.
  • Data-oriented and process-minded-able to justify priorities with evidence and communicate recommendations clearly.
  • Self-motivated, proactive, and solutions-driven (you identify problems, build a plan, and drive it to completion).
  • Comfortable collaborating across functions-working with trades, engineers, and operations to solve problems together.
  • This is an individual contributor role.

Qualifications

Why You'll Love This Role
  • Make your handprint visible. You'll be trusted to run with meaningful work-not stuck in meetings all day-and you'll see the results of your improvements on the floor.
  • Big company opportunity. Small company attitude. You'll have strong resources behind you, plus the flexibility and ownership to do your best work.
  • Cross-functional impact. Work side-by-side with maintenance, process engineering, operations, and other partners to improve how the plant runs.
  • Growth runway. This role can be a strong path toward broader engineering or maintenance leadership opportunities.
  • Purpose you can feel. We're here to make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all-and reliability is a key part of delivering that promise every day.

Location, Travel & Pay
  • This role is designed for on-site partnership with maintenance and operations teams, with daily presence in the plant environment.
  • Schedule: 6:30AM-2:30PM
  • Travel is not specifically defined; work may require moving between assigned plant areas/teams based on business need.
  • Pay Range: will be determined based on level of experience, skills and impact. We are hiring Engineers I, II and III. The Pay range listed below is for an Engineer III.

Ready to Make an Impact

If you're a hands-on, data-driven problem solver who wants to prevent the next failure-not just respond to it-this is your chance to build reliability that lasts. Bring your curiosity, your mechanical know-how, and your bias for action-and help us keep our operations running strong.

About Michael Foods, Inc.

Michael Foods is a leading producer and distributor of value-added food products. The company's products include egg products, refrigerated potato products, and cheese and dairy products. Michael Foods' egg products are used in a variety of food products, including baked goods, soups, sauces, and prepared meals. The company's potato products are used in a variety of food products, including mashed potatoes, hash browns, and potato pancakes. Michael Foods was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Learn more about Michael Foods, Inc.
Size
3,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1908

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Michael Foods, Inc.

More Manufacturing & Automotive Jobs

Find similar Reliability Engineer jobs: