📍 Ingleburn | Work Close to Home
🏭 Hands-on Trade-Based Role | Fast-Paced Meat Manufacturing

Do you love fixing things, getting on the tools, and being the person who actually makes problems go away?

We’re looking for a trade-qualified, mechanically minded Mechanical Reliability Specialist to join our Ingleburn site. This is a floor-based, sleeves-rolled-up role — not an office job, and definitely not a “stand back and tell people what to do” position.

We need someone who genuinely understands how machines work, why they fail, and how to stop it happening again. If motors, pumps, seals, lubrication failures, overheating equipment or the consequences of poor past maintenance make your brain light up — this role will feel right at home.

About the role

You’ll work side-by-side with our electricians, fitters and turners, troubleshooting breakdowns, getting on the tools when required, and helping move the site from reactive firefighting to proactive, planned maintenance.

This role is ideal for someone from a strong mechanical trade background who has naturally grown into reliability, problem-solving and continuous improvement — while still loving being close to the action. You may even be degree qualified in Mechanical Engineering or working towards it.

You’ll be visible on the floor, deeply connected to the plant, and known as someone who gets things fixed and gets things done.

What you’ll be doing

• Work hands-on with maintenance trades to diagnose and resolve mechanical breakdowns across the production lines.

• Investigate recurring mechanical failures including motors, pumps, seals, bearings, lubrication issues, overheating equipment and mechanical wear.

• Lead root cause analysis of breakdowns and work collaboratively with maintenance, production and spare parts teams to prevent reoccurrence.

• Drive a shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, improving reliability through better planning, lubrication practices and maintenance strategies.

• Partner closely with the spare parts team to ensure the right parts are available and critical spares are identified and managed effectively.

• Support and strengthen preventive and predictive maintenance programs, including RCM-based approaches.

• Be a hands-on mechanical expert and trusted problem-solver for the site — someone people go to when things go wrong.

• Someone who also appreciates the admin side - you will be creating work order requests, trades requests and will follow up to ensure these requests are done. Making sure all the data is in the system will ensure people have visibility and accountability of what need be done and by whom.

• Work with Site Leaders to recommend CAPEX and be an integral part on how we decide what we need to invest in.

What will help you succeed

• A trade background (mechanical-focused) — we need someone who can be tactical and roll their sleeves up, and having a trades background indicates this is your jam.

• Strong mechanical fault-finding skills across:

  • Motors and pumps

  • Seals, bearings and lubrication systems

  • Power transmission (gearboxes, belts, chains, shafts)

  • Overheating and wear-related failures

• Proven experience working in a manufacturing or FMCG environment (food or meat manufacturing highly regarded).

• The ability to work highly collaboratively with electricians, fitters, production teams and spare parts teams.

• A proactive mindset — you look for what might fail next, not just what already has.

• Strong problem-solving capability with experience in RCA, FMEA or similar methodologies.

• A genuine passion for fixing things, improving equipment performance and leaving machinery better than you found it.

This role is for you if you…

• Come from a trade background and are proud of it

• Prefer the factory floor over a desk

• Get real satisfaction from solving mechanical problems

• Enjoy working as part of a tight-knit maintenance and production team

• Want stability in a growing industry and the chance to make a real impact

If you’re a mechanically minded problem-solver who loves being hands-on, working with great people and keeping production running, we’d love to hear from you.

Why join us?

• Work close to home at our Ingleburn site

• Be part of a growing, stable industry

• Join a down-to-earth team that values action, teamwork and a bit of humour

• Make a real impact in a role where your expertise is valued and visible

If you’re ready for a hands-on reliability role where you can make a difference every day, we’d love to hear from you.

What’s next?

If you're ready to unleash your potential and make a real difference in the booming pet industry, then we want to hear from you! Next steps will include:

• An initial telephone interview followed by 2 face to face interviews and site visit

• 2 work references

• A Pre-Employment Medical

• Must have full Australian working rights. We are unable to offer sponsorship at this stage

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Diversity’s not a buzzword here, it’s in our DNA. Diverse perspectives shape our culture and make our work better. That’s why we’re committed to building inclusive teams that represent a variety of backgrounds and skills. If you need any reasonable adjustments, accessibility assistance or would like to note which pronouns you use at any stage of our hiring process, just contact us at accommodations: people&culture@realpetfoodco.com.au. We look forward to hearing from you.

Please note: NO agencies will be considered during this process. We encourage you to refrain from submitting unsolicited profiles