Join Shinkei as a Maintenance Lead

About the Role

We’re looking for a hands-on Maintenance Lead to own equipment reliability and plant utility systems for our Tacoma processing operation.

This role is responsible for planning and executing both preventive and corrective maintenance across production equipment and core facility systems, including refrigeration, compressed air, water, and electrical infrastructure. It’s a highly autonomous role for someone who can diagnose issues quickly, work safely, prioritize effectively, and keep the plant running with minimal disruption.

The right person is practical, resourceful, and deeply reliable — someone who takes pride in doing quality work, responding quickly when something breaks, and building systems that prevent problems before they happen.

What You’ll Do

Own Preventive & Corrective Maintenance

• Develop and execute preventive maintenance schedules for plant equipment and critical systems.
• Perform hands-on troubleshooting, repairs, and maintenance on processing equipment to minimize downtime.
• Respond quickly to equipment failures and work to restore production safely and efficiently.
• Track recurring issues and improve maintenance practices to increase uptime and reliability.

Support Plant Utilities & Infrastructure

• Maintain and monitor key utility systems, including:
  • refrigeration
  • compressed air
  • water systems
  • electrical systems
• Help ensure all utility systems are operating safely, reliably, and in support of production needs.
• Coordinate repairs or external vendor support when specialized service is required.

Manage Parts, Tools & Maintenance Readiness

• Maintain inventory of critical spare parts, consumables, and maintenance supplies.
• Identify replacement needs and support purchasing requests to ensure essential materials are on hand.
• Keep tools, work areas, and maintenance records organized and ready for efficient execution.

Partner Closely with Plant Operations

• Coordinate maintenance work with Production, Quality, and plant leadership to minimize disruption.
• Communicate clearly about downtime, repair timelines, and operational risks.
• Support a culture of responsiveness, teamwork, and practical problem-solving across the plant.

Lead with Safety & Good Judgment

• Perform all maintenance work with a strong commitment to safety first.
• Follow plant safety protocols and help ensure maintenance work is completed in compliance with OSHA and company standards.
• Use sound judgment around lockout/tagout, equipment isolation, electrical work, and safe work practices.
• Help create a plant environment where reliability and safety go hand in hand.

What We’re Looking For

Required Experience

• 3+ years of hands-on maintenance experience in a seafood manufacturing, food processing, industrial, or similarly equipment-driven environment.
• Strong experience performing preventive and corrective maintenance independently.
• Experience troubleshooting and repairing industrial equipment in a fast-paced operational setting.
• Comfortable managing multiple priorities and responding quickly to urgent plant needs.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in seafood processing, food manufacturing, protein processing, cold chain, or refrigerated production environments.
• Experience supporting plant utility systems such as refrigeration, compressed air, water, and electrical systems.
• Experience working in smaller plants or lean environments where maintenance must be highly self-directed.
• Familiarity with vendor coordination and basic parts/inventory planning.

Skills & Qualifications

• Strong mechanical and basic electrical troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to diagnose equipment issues and perform effective repairs with limited oversight.
• Ability to read and interpret technical manuals, diagrams, and equipment documentation.
• Working knowledge of plant utility systems and general industrial maintenance practices.
• Strong organization and follow-through with PM schedules, work orders, and parts management.
• Calm under pressure with a practical, solution-oriented mindset.
• Strong sense of ownership, urgency, and accountability.
• Able to collaborate well with production and plant leadership.
• Technical training in Industrial Maintenance, Electromechanical Systems, Electrical, or a related field is a plus.

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Equipment downtime is minimized and urgent issues are addressed quickly and safely.
• Preventive maintenance is completed consistently and improves plant reliability over time.
• Utility systems remain stable, safe, and production-ready.
• The plant has strong maintenance discipline, not just reactive repairs.
• Spare parts and critical supplies are well managed.
• Production trusts that maintenance issues will be handled with urgency, quality, and sound judgment.

Working Conditions

• Full-time, on-site in Tacoma, WA
• Bilingual (English / Spanish) a plus
• Regular work in and around a seafood processing environment, including cold, wet, refrigerated, and industrial conditions
• May require occasional off-hours, early mornings, weekends, or on-call support depending on plant needs
• Must be able to safely lift tools, parts, and materials and work around operating equipment

Why This Role Matters

This role is critical to keeping the plant running safely and reliably.

The right person will help ensure the systems behind our production are stable, responsive, and well cared for — protecting uptime, supporting the team, and reinforcing the quality standards we expect for every product we process.

Apply for this position