Automation Maintenance Specialist - High-Speed Beverage Filling

Job Description

Job DescriptionBuild uptime. Shape quality. Grow your career.

Imagine stepping into a modern, SQF Level III-certified plant where your craftsmanship keeps high-speed fillers, conveyors, and servo systems performing at their peak. At Berner Food & Beverage in Dakota, IL, you’ll be the difference-maker who reduces downtime, elevates quality, and safeguards our utilities—steam, chilled water, cooling towers, wells, and HVAC—so we can deliver shelf-stable beverages, dips, sauces, and award-recognized aerosol cheese to the market.

About the environment you’ll join

• State-of-the-art automation supported by a 290,000 sq. ft. expansion that tripled production space.
• Innovative, inclusive, and safety-first culture committed to employee development.
• Industry highlight: 2025 finalist in the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association “Coolest Thing Made in Illinois.”
• Flexible scheduling, competitive compensation, and full benefits.

Your mission

• Lead with prevention—execute PMs to systematically cut unplanned downtime.
• Diagnose and repair mechanical issues using technical manuals, diagrams, drawings, and schematics.
• Verify performance by operating, inspecting, and testing equipment post-repair.
• Uphold safety and compliance: company policies, Lock-out/Tag-out, GMPs, food safety, and OSHA.
• Develop sustainable fixes to equipment and plant mechanical systems.
• Close work orders on time; log detailed records in CMMS; communicate clearly across departments.
• Support line changeovers and startups to meet schedule, quality, and OEE targets.
• Manage spare parts—identify needs, maintain inventory, and keep reorder lists current.
• Champion product quality to the highest standard.
• Engage in Continuous Improvement; contribute ideas and take part in team initiatives.
• Grow your maintenance and leadership skills through structured training.
• Operate and maintain steam boilers, water chillers, cooling towers, well pumps, HVAC, and other utility assets.
• Perform wet chemistry water testing accurately; collect, publish, and communicate data internally and externally.

Skills & experience for success

• Technical training in maintenance or 3+ years in industrial equipment maintenance (food manufacturing preferred).
• Boiler, chiller, or HVAC training preferred; strong mechanical background with bearings, seals, and gaskets.
• Proven skill with gearboxes, chains/sprockets, belts, clutches, bearings, and brakes.
• Plus: compressed air systems, basic plumbing/piping, boilers, hydraulics.
• Fluent with hand/power tools, drill presses, and shop tools.
• Read/write English; interpret safety rules, O&M manuals, procedures, diagrams, schedules, and work from drawings/schematics/sketches and verbal instruction.
• Independent and team contributor; communicates status proactively.
• Willing to work varied shifts, overtime, weekends, and holidays.
• Strong practical problem-solving; comfortable with change and variables.
• Demonstrated commitment to learning, leadership development, and lean practices (process capability, operational discipline).
• Basic computer literacy for work orders and data tracking; maintain your own basic tools.

Core proficiencies & equipment

• Mechanical Troubleshooting Skills
• 120/208/240/480 Voltage Systems
• Pneumatics Troubleshooting
• Maintenance and Repair Skills
• Mechanical Systems & Component Repair
• Electrical Panel Installation
• Equipment Repair & Maintenance
• Equipment Installation
• Aircraft Electrical Systems

Machines & technologies: Conveyor Systems; Servo Motors

Rewards

• Hourly pay range: $26.00–$40.00 (experience-based).
• PM shift differential: +$2.00/hour for the PM shift only.
• Benefits: Medical, Vision, Dental, Flexible Spending, Basic Life & AD&D, Short- and Long-Term Disability, EAP, and 401(k).
• Eligibility: Health benefits start the 1st of the month after 60 days; 401(k) eligibility after 30 days.
• Flexible scheduling to support work-life balance.

Physical requirements (verbatim)

*Physical Requirements

*

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

· Ability to lift 50-70 lbs. Performs highly repetitive motions, stands for eight-plus hours, talks, and hears.

· Ability to climb ladders and stairways, use a man-lift/scissor lift at ceiling heights or above with proper safety equipment, and work in a non-air-conditioned environment.

- May require going into a confined space on the manufacturing floor.

· While performing job duties, the associate will frequently walk, use hands to feel or handle, and reach with hands and arms. Frequent exposure to oils and greases or coolants.

· While performing job duties, the associate will occasionally sit, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, and smell. Occasional exposure to wet and/or humid conditions; high, precarious places; toxic or caustic chemicals; outside weather conditions; extreme heat; and vibration.

· Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Note: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. An employee may perform other related duties as needed to meet Berner Food & Beverage’s ongoing needs.