Company Overview:
Ancient Crunch Inc. is the fastest-growing healthy snack brand in the US. MASA Chips, our top product, is the no.1 selling tortilla chip in popular stores like Erewhon. We use only real ingredients like beef tallow—no seed oils or artificial flavors or ingredients—and manufacture everything ourselves in Hackettstown, NJ.
Job Description:
We are seeking a full-time, on-site Maintenance Mechanic to join our team. The Mechanic-Maintenance will fill an essential role in monitoring and maintaining plant equipment and overall maintenance needs, improving productivity, food safety, team member satisfaction and operations efficiencies.
The Mechanic-Maintenance Technician will work under the direction of the Director of Operations, and will be responsible to effectively maintain and document the Plant and Equipment Preventive Maintenance (PM) plans, and to ensure that emergency maintenance needs are addressed promptly and effectively. The successful candidate will support Operations with the focus on zero or minimal workflow interruptions, and will work to build relationships with Production Team and QA Team members.
This is an exciting opportunity working in a fast-paced, small, lean food manufacturing organization. The ideal candidate has strong communications skills, is detail oriented, highly ethical, and possesses a desire for problem prevention and solving.
Responsibilities: Each of them is the result of the activities summarized to achieve the objective of the position and the time spent for each area.
Fundamental Areas
- Be the primary person for compliance with PM plan requirements and company policies and procedures.
- Maintain and repair fryers, packaging machines, etc.
- Maintain hydraulic loading docks plates, forklifts and pallet jacks.
- Consult equipment manuals and phone or online resources to effectively maintain equipment in proper working order.
- Keep all equipment lubricated and in good working order every day, preventing shutdowns by foreseeing potential problems with all necessary equipment.
- Work with approved vendor partners to ensure smooth running operations.
- Participate in the selection of new/replacement equipment for the facility.
- Work with integrity, accuracy, and moral conduct as related to all business opportunities and activities
- Active involvement daily with all team members monitoring and verifying PM plan needs and emergency maintenance needs.
- Manage relationships with approved third-party vendors whose expertise is essential to certain maintenance tasks.
- Participate in continuous improvements to product safety and quality with various department members
- Follow all plant safety, USDA, SQF and GMP guidelines
- Knowledge of electronics related to equipment will be a plus but not a must to be considered for the job
- Perform other related duties as assigned or requested
Required Skills & Competencies
Technical Skills
- Hands-on experience troubleshooting, repairing, and performing preventive maintenance on industrial food processing equipment (fryers, packaging/sealing machines, conveyors)
- Working knowledge of hydraulic and pneumatic systems (loading dock plates, lifts)
- Experience operating and performing basic maintenance on forklifts and pallet jacks
- Basic mechanical aptitude: bearings, belts, motors, gearboxes, lubrication systems
- Ability to read equipment manuals, wiring diagrams, and schematics
- Basic electrical troubleshooting (motor controls, sensors, wiring) — helpful but not required per the JD
- Comfortable using hand tools, power tools, and precision measuring instruments
- Basic welding/fabrication skills a plus
Food Safety & Compliance
- Familiarity with GMP, SQF, and USDA regulations in a food manufacturing environment
- Understanding of sanitary design principles for food-contact equipment
- Ability to document maintenance activities accurately for audit/compliance purposes
Organizational & Soft Skills
- Strong verbal and written communication skills across production, QA, and vendor teams
- Detail-oriented with strong follow-up and documentation habits
- Ability to prioritize and manage multiple maintenance requests/PM tasks simultaneously
- Problem-solving mindset with a bias toward prevention over reaction
- High integrity and reliability — comfortable working with minimal supervision
- Vendor management experience (scheduling, coordinating third-party repairs)
Experience/Education
- 2+ years of maintenance mechanic experience, ideally in food/beverage or CPG manufacturing
- Forklift certification a plus (or willingness to obtain one)
What We Offer
- Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
- Opportunity to shape one of the most transformative and fastest growing brands in cpg history
- All the chips you can eat!