Job Description:

This role drives plant performance through data‑driven engineering decisions, operational excellence, and strong reliability practices. The individual leads innovation using our company Production System (MPS), develops sustainable solutions to recurring operational challenges, and ensures safe, compliant, and cost‑effective production operations. Acting as a reliability and maintenance SME, the role supports audits, regulatory inspections, and capability building across the organization.

WHAT YOU WILL DOKey Responsibilities Compliance – Safety & Quality

• Lead Safety, Quality, and Customer Complaint investigations with cross‑functional teams, establishing effective Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPAs) to prevent recurrence.

• Support implementation of equipment changes through formal change control, including impact assessments, execution of field equipment modifications, and documentation.

• Manage project schedules, resource planning, APRs, vendor coordination and qualification, as well as material procurement activities.

• Proactively review and challenge existing practices to reduce safety risks to employees and quality risks to products, ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance.

Maintenance Quality & Reliability Excellence

• Provide technical expertise and hands‑on support to Maintenance Technicians during equipment breakdowns, troubleshooting, and recovery to ensure timely and effective resolution.

• Implement technical and reliability solutions to improve equipment uptime and asset utilization through a Continuous Improvement mindset (Lean methodologies).

• Partner with Engineering and SHE CoE to execute reliability‑centered maintenance (RCM) strategies and share best practices and lessons learned to improve asset performance.

• Establish and track reliability KPIs (e.g., downtime, failure trends, asset performance) to drive data‑based improvements and sustain equipment health.

Continuous Improvement (CI)

• Apply Lean methodologies (5S, Standard Work, Real‑Time Problem Solving – RTPS) to drive equipment robustness, reduce downtime, and eliminate safety and quality risks across operations, cleaning, and maintenance activities.

• Support and advance the Continuous Improvement framework, partnering with Maintenance teams to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities.

• Conduct equipment criticality and spare‑parts assessments, ensuring availability of critical and standby equipment to maximize capacity and reliability.

• Support maintenance planning and scheduling processes within the area of responsibility.

Financial Stewardship

• Execute initiatives supporting production realization, IPT cost effectiveness, and product cost reduction targets aligned with the Profit Plan, with strong emphasis on equipment reliability and maintenance cost control.

• Monitor and optimize the maintenance program, ensuring cost effectiveness through right‑sized spare parts inventory, optimized PM frequency, and reduced breakdown events.

• Partner with Senior Management to achieve Profit Plan targets, optimizing maintenance and product standard costs while ensuring compliance with cGMP and Safety requirements.

WHAT YOU MUST HAVEPeople Management

• Partner with Senior Manager, Maintenance to define and deploy clear, achievable work priorities and objectives, strengthening technical competence and Lean mindset in alignment with MPS.

• Provide timely feedback, coaching, and recognition to direct reports and IPT Maintenance members based on performance and demonstration of leadership behaviors.

• Ensure all direct reports maintain individual development plans aligned with business objectives and long‑term career growth.

• Align team Learning Plans to assigned tasks, ensuring competence in safety, quality, operations, and maintenance requirements.

• Foster a positive, inclusive, and high‑performance culture, promoting teamwork, engagement, and collaboration across functions.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Mechatronics, Chemical, Electrical, or Instrumentation & Control Engineering.

• Minimum 8 years of maintenance and reliability experience within regulated manufacturing environments, preferably pharmaceutical, chemical, semiconductor, or petrochemical industries.

• Strong knowledge of parts inventory management, mechanical and electrical equipment systems, and equipment design reliability principles.

• Solid understanding of Continuous Improvement tools, cGMP requirements for pharmaceutical and/or vaccine manufacturing, and Lean Six Sigma methodologies.

• Demonstrated expertise in root cause analysis, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and reliability engineering, including asset life‑cycle management.

• Hands‑on experience with Risk‑Based Asset Management (RBAM) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), including SAP.

Who we are

We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

What we look for

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.

Required Skills:

Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), Decision Making, Engineering Controls, Environmental Regulatory Compliance, Equipment Implementation, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), HVAC Design, Inventory Management, Maintenance Management, Maintenance Planning, Maintenance Planning Software, Maintenance Scheduling, Mechanical Integrity, Morale Building, Operational Excellence, Parts Inventory Management, People Leadership, Predictive Maintenance, Process Improvements, Process Safety Management, Project Resource Management, Regulatory Inspections, Reliability Engineering, Six Sigma {+ 2 more}

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully

Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation: VISA Sponsorship:Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift: Valid Driving License:Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

04/24/2026

**A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.