Maintenance Technician
De Silva Brothers & Company
Location: Pico Rivera, CA (on-site)
Schedule: Full-time, day shift, Monday–Friday (occasional early start or extended hours during production peaks)
Reports to: Maintenance and CI Manager
Compensation: $26.00–$32.00 per hour, depending on experience
About Us:
De Silva Brothers & Company is a family-owned ingredient blending and co-packing operation whose roots trace back to 1955, when our founder began selling Ceylon cinnamon in Sri Lanka. Today we blend, package, and distribute herbs, spices, and seasonings for retail and foodservice customers across the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil — including private label programs for national retailers. Our facility is SQF, HACCP, GMP, and Kosher certified.
The Role:
Our packaging and blending lines run daily, and this role is what keeps them running. You’ll be the person the floor calls when a filler drifts out of spec, a conveyor jams, or a capper starts rejecting. Just as importantly, you’ll be the person making sure those calls happen less often — through a preventive maintenance program you help run and own.
This is a hands-on mechanical role in a food plant. You should be comfortable with sanitary equipment, food-grade standards, and the reality that a repair isn’t finished until the area is clean and release-ready.
What You’ll Do:
Troubleshoot, repair, and adjust packaging equipment — fillers (auger and volumetric), form-fill-seal machines, cappers, labelers, case packers, sealers, and conveyors
Maintain blending and processing equipment including ribbon blenders, mixers, sifters, grinders, and dust collection systems
Perform changeovers and line setups between products, jar and pouch sizes, and run formats
Execute scheduled preventive maintenance and keep accurate PM records, work orders, and equipment history logs
Support metal detector and checkweigher function checks, calibrations, and documentation
Handle general facility upkeep — compressed air lines, plumbing, doors and docks, lighting, and minor building repairs
Maintain the spare parts inventory and flag reorder needs before parts run out
Follow lockout/tagout, confined space, and all plant safety procedures without exception
Work clean: use food-grade (H1) lubricants, practice tool accountability, control foreign material risk, and return equipment sanitation-ready after every job
Support SQF and customer audits by keeping maintenance documentation current and audit-ready
Escalate recurring failures with root-cause observations rather than repeat quick fixes
What You Bring:
Required
2+ years of maintenance experience in food, beverage, pharmaceutical, or comparable manufacturing
Strong mechanical troubleshooting skills across motors, gearboxes, drives, bearings, chains, belts, pneumatics, and conveyor systems
Ability to read and work from equipment manuals, schematics, and parts diagrams
Basic electrical troubleshooting — motors, starters, sensors, and photo eyes (diagnosing and replacing, not panel design)
Comfort using hand and power tools; owns a basic set of hand tools
Understanding of GMP and sanitary design principles in a food environment, or the willingness to learn them quickly
Reliable attendance and the judgment to work independently when the plant is running
Preferred
Experience with auger fillers, rotary cappers, or vertical form-fill-seal equipment
Welding, fabrication, or machining ability
Familiarity with SQF, HACCP, or third-party audit environments
Forklift and scissor lift certification (we will train and certify)
Bilingual English/Spanish
Physical Requirements & Work Environment
Lift up to 50 lbs; frequent standing, walking, bending, kneeling, and climbing ladders
Work in a production environment with airborne spice dust, machinery noise, and varying temperatures
Required PPE including hairnet/beard net, safety glasses, hearing protection, and slip-resistant footwear
What Success Looks Like in Year One:
Unplanned line downtime is measurably lower than when you started
Preventive maintenance is completed on schedule and documented well enough to hand an auditor without prep work
Changeovers are completed on time and to spec, without rework or restart delays
The floor trusts your fixes to hold
Benefits:
Medical / dental / vision, paid time off, holidays, 401 (k) and 401 (k) match.
