Senior Maintenance Mechanic
Northeast Alternatives is a growing, award-winning, seed-to-table cannabis retail brand specializing in the highest quality cannabis products Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey has to offer. Constantly focused on developing and ingenuity, NEA strives to achieve this by adding skilled and motivated team players. These goals are met by seeking out diverse, talented individuals to further the company's mission and provide unique and new ideas. As the business continues to grow, our team will continue to grow, allowing us to be the best in our specialized market. If you are motivated, eager to learn, dedicated, flexible and excited about joining an incredible industry, Northeast Alternatives is the perfect place to be!
Primary Work Location: 310 Kenneth Welch Drive, Lakeville, MA — sole on-site presence, with occasional travel to other facilities
Shift: Monday-Friday, 7:00am-3:30pm. Primary on-call escalation.
Purpose of the Role:
The Senior Maintenance Mechanic is the technical authority for NEA’s Massachusetts facilities and owns the equipment that Lakeville’s production depends on: roughly 1,500 tons of centrifugal chiller capacity, some thirty air handlers across fourteen bloom rooms and the veg and propagation suites, a 29,000 GPD reverse-osmosis water plant, and the environmental controls that hold a nine-week flower cycle inside a narrow temperature and humidity band.
When a chiller alarms at two in the morning, when a dehumidifier drops a flower room out of spec, or when a control system stops communicating, this is the person who resolves it. In a cultivation facility environmental control is not a comfort question — it is a crop question, and this role owns it.
The role also builds and runs the preventive maintenance program and the work-order system that keep those failures from occurring, and mentors the Mechanics and Technicians coming up behind it.
Responsibilities:
Central plant and environmental systems
- Own the chiller plant — two 600-ton York centrifugal units and one 300-ton Trane — including oil analysis, vibration monitoring, eddy-current tube testing intervals and vendor coordination
- Own air handling across all bloom, veg and propagation rooms, and the dehumidification and CO2 systems
- Own the reverse-osmosis and RODI water plant, storage, fertigation supply and process pumps
- Troubleshoot environmental control and building management systems to the point of resolution, not escalation
Technical authority
- Serve as the escalation point for the Maintenance Mechanic and Facilities Technicians on any system fault
- Cover 999 William S. Canning Blvd for all work beyond the Senior Facilities Technician’s scope — MIP kitchen refrigeration, the 30-ton unit, cure room, three-phase and control-system faults — travelling from Lakeville. Budget roughly six to eight hours a week for this, and reduce it over time by funding the site technician’s EPA 608.
- Determine when work stays in house and when a licensed contractor is required; scope the work, compare quotes, and verify workmanship before sign-off
- Own lockout/tagout and energized-work safety standards for the department
- Advise the Director on capital repair versus replacement, with supporting failure history
Preventive maintenance program
- Migrate NEA’s existing harvest-synchronized preventive maintenance schedule onto the work-order platform and own it thereafter — a defined deliverable of the first ninety days
- Build the asset registry from scratch — every chiller, air handler, pump and dehumidifier as a discrete record with service history — and turn on labor hours booked by asset, location and function
- Report preventive versus reactive work ratio, PM completion rate and repeat-failure analysis to the Director monthly
- Maintain the equipment records and service history that support both compliance inspection and insurance underwriting
Compliance and development
- Maintain full CCC and OSHA compliance and document compliance-relevant repairs
- Mentor Mechanics and Technicians, and validate their readiness against the published progression criteria
- Serve as primary on-call escalation and respond to critical after-hours failures
Eligibility Requirements:
These are requirements, not preferences. An application that does not meet every item below will not be considered, and the same standard is applied to internal and external candidates without exception. Each item is objectively verifiable by a third party. Where NEA funds a certification, that is stated.
Trade requirements — an application must meet all of the following:
- Five or more years of hands-on experience in commercial or industrial HVAC-R, electrical or industrial maintenance — OR demonstrated equivalent capability validated through NEA’s technical assessment
- ONE of the following, held at hire and not obtainable afterward: (a) a Massachusetts journeyman electrical or
plumbing license, OR (b) EPA 608 Universal certification together with five years of documented commercial HVAC-R service experience
- FORMAL TECHNICAL GROUNDING IN CONTROLS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS. This is the requirement that defines the technical track and distinguishes it from the Lead Service Technician. An application must satisfy ONE of the two paths below.
- PATH A — a completed vocational, technical or community-college certificate, diploma or associate degree in any of: industrial or electromechanical maintenance technology, HVAC-R, electrical technology, electronics or instrumentation technology, mechatronics, or industrial controls. A manufacturer or platform certification in building automation or motor control satisfies this path in its own right — Tridium Niagara, Siemens, Johnson Controls Metasys, Honeywell, Automated Logic, Distech, Argus, Priva or TrolMaster; or a PLC or variable-frequency-drive certification from Allen-Bradley/Rockwell, Siemens, ABB, Danfoss or Yaskawa. So does a
recognized instrumentation or electronics credential — ISA Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) Level I or above, ETA International Certified Electronics Technician, or NICET Level II or above in a relevant subfield. So does a completed registered electrical, HVAC-R or millwright apprenticeship.
- PATH B — five or more years of direct hands-on experience in mechanical, HVAC-R or electrical work, held together with a current licensed trade credential: a Massachusetts journeyman or master electrical, plumbing or refrigeration license, or the equivalent license from another state. Time served in the trade under license is treated as equivalent to formal coursework, and a candidate who learned this work through licensure and years on the tools is not disadvantaged against a candidate who learned it in a classroom.
- Demonstrated capability on centrifugal or screw chillers, industrial dehumidification, and building management or environmental control systems, validated through the technical assessment
- Demonstrated ability to read and work from electrical schematics, ladder logic, mechanical drawings and P&IDs
- OSHA 10 certification, or the ability to obtain it within 90 days; OSHA 30 within the first year — company paid
- Availability to serve as primary on-call escalation, including nights, weekends and holidays
All roles additionally require:
- Minimum 21 years of age (Cannabis Control Commission requirement)
- Able to obtain and maintain a Massachusetts CCC agent registration card
- Passes a pre-employment background check and drug screen in accordance with company policy and state regulation
- Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation between NEA Massachusetts locations
Preferred Qualifications:
These are not requirements. They differentiate candidates who already meet the eligibility criteria above.
- Massachusetts master electrician or master plumber license
- Both credentials — a journeyman license and EPA 608 Universal
- Both paths of the technical-grounding requirement — a controls, electronics or instrumentation credential held alongside a trade license and five or more years on the tools
- Documented experience commissioning or servicing centrifugal chillers above 500 tons
- Experience with Argus, Priva, TrolMaster, Siemens or Johnson Controls platforms at an administrator level
- Experience implementing a CMMS, including asset registry build and migration of an existing PM schedule onto a platform
- Experience in cannabis, greenhouse, pharmaceutical or food manufacturing at a facility of comparable scale
- Experience preparing equipment and maintenance records for insurance underwriting or regulatory inspection
Essential Physical Functions:
This role requires the ability to perform the following, with or without reasonable accommodation:
- Lift 50 lbs and push or pull 100 lbs
- Stand, walk, stoop, twist, bend, reach, kneel and perform repetitive motions throughout an eight-hour shift
- Climb ladders and work from elevated platforms and lifts
- Work in cultivation environments at up to 84°F and 75% relative humidity, in mechanical rooms, on roofs, and outdoors in all seasons
- Wear required PPE for the full shift, including respiratory protection where applicable
- Comply with sanitation protocol, including showering and washing hair before entering restricted production areas (occasional)
Behavioral Expectations:
NEA expects every employee to be reliable and punctual, to communicate clearly, to work safely, and to treat colleagues with respect. These are expectations of employment and are managed through performance review. They are deliberately not listed as eligibility requirements, because they cannot be objectively verified at the application stage.
Benefits:
- Health, dental and vision insurance
- Paid time off and paid holidays
- Company-paid certifications — EPA 608 (all types), OSHA 10 and 30, forklift and aerial lift, and approved apprenticeship or licensure programs
- On-call stipend and call-out premium when on rotation
Northeast Alternatives has a strong commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and aspires to be reflective of the diverse communities we serve. We aim to attract and hire qualified candidates who hold these same values, provide diverse perspectives, and contribute to creating a workplace where all employees experience a sense of belonging.
Northeast Alternatives is proud to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetics, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by state, federal and local laws. In addition to federal law requirements, NEA complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.
EEO M/F/D/V
NOTE: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may perform other related duties as assigned to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.
