Maintenance Manager (Contract)

Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities.

GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet. With over 16,000 employees across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of £3.6bn in 2025. There are no limits to where you can take your career.

Job Summary

The Maintenance Manager (Contract) provides interim leadership for the Garden Grove Facilities and Maintenance organization during a leave-of-absence coverage assignment. This role is responsible for directing maintenance supervisors, maintenance personnel, and contractors to ensure the safe, compliant, and reliable operation of manufacturing equipment, facilities systems, utilities, and supporting infrastructure.

The successful candidate will maintain operational continuity through effective maintenance execution, preventive maintenance compliance, equipment recovery, contractor oversight, resource planning, and stakeholder communication. This position plays a critical role in supporting safety, quality, delivery, and overall manufacturing performance within a highly regulated aerospace and defense environment.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead daily maintenance operations, providing direction to maintenance supervisors and ensuring effective prioritization of resources, shift coverage, preventive maintenance execution, and issue escalation to support uninterrupted production.
• Drive equipment reliability through preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance activities, ensuring rapid response to equipment, facility, and utility failures while implementing corrective actions that prevent recurrence and improve operational performance.
• Oversee CMMS administration and maintenance governance, including work order management, preventive maintenance compliance, backlog control, equipment history accuracy, and analysis of maintenance data to identify improvement opportunities.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable safety, environmental, quality, and regulatory requirements, including LOTO, electrical safety, confined space, hot work, and contractor management, while maintaining appropriate risk assessments and safe work practices.
• Lead and develop maintenance supervisors and teams by aligning labor resources, communicating priorities, fostering accountability, and promoting a culture of safety, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
• Support the reliable operation of facility infrastructure and critical utilities, including HVAC, electrical distribution, compressed air, chilled water, steam, vacuum, chemical distribution systems, wastewater interfaces, and general building systems.
• Coordinate maintenance support for capital projects, equipment installations, facility upgrades, shutdowns, commissioning activities, and contractor-led work, ensuring proper documentation, preventive maintenance integration, and operational handoff.

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Facilities Management, Industrial Technology, or a related technical discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• Minimum seven (7) years of experience in maintenance, facilities, reliability engineering, manufacturing engineering, or plant operations within aerospace, defense, chemical manufacturing, or a similarly regulated industrial environment.
• Minimum five (5) years of leadership experience managing supervisors, technicians, skilled trades personnel, contractors, or multi-shift maintenance teams.
• Demonstrated experience leading maintenance operations in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and responding effectively to high-impact operational events.
• Strong knowledge of CMMS systems, maintenance planning and scheduling, preventive maintenance programs, work-order management, backlog control, and maintenance performance metrics.
• Experience managing contractors and suppliers performing maintenance and construction activities in industrial environments.
• Must qualify as a U.S. Person in accordance with applicable export control regulations, including ITAR requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting aerospace transparency manufacturing, composite manufacturing, chemical processing, cleanroom operations, or vertically integrated manufacturing environments.
• Experience using Maintenance Connection or similar CMMS platforms.
• Knowledge of AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, customer audit requirements, and regulated manufacturing documentation practices.
• Experience supporting critical utility systems and controlled manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated project management experience involving capital equipment installation, facility improvements, shutdown planning, commissioning, and contractor management.

Compensation

Pay Range: $57.67/hr - $72.09/hr

We’ll offer you fantastic challenges and amazing opportunities. This is your chance to be part of an organisation that has proven itself to be at the cutting edge of our industry; and is committed to pushing the boundaries even further.  And with some of the best training on offer in the industry, who knows how far you can go?

A Great Place to work needs a Great Way of Working

Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN.  We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute.  It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’.  By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.

We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know.

We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology. ​
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