Chief Engineer

Senior Facilities Engineering & Maintenance Leader

Location: Lake Forest, IL
Work Arrangement: Onsite
Hours: 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Reports To: Facility Manager

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced facilities engineering and maintenance leader to provide technical and operational leadership for a corporate headquarters and its critical infrastructure. This position is responsible for ensuring the safe, reliable, efficient, and compliant operation of facility systems while leading maintenance activities, technical troubleshooting, reliability initiatives, contractors, and facility improvement projects.

The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical resource for the facility, providing hands-on technical leadership across mechanical, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, life safety, building controls, and critical infrastructure systems. This role will also help develop maintenance technicians, strengthen preventive and predictive maintenance programs, improve equipment reliability, and support long-term infrastructure and capital planning.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical and operational leadership for facility engineering and maintenance functions, ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient operation of building systems and critical infrastructure.

• Serve as a senior technical resource for complex equipment and infrastructure issues, providing advanced troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, technical direction, and solutions that reduce operational risk and improve system reliability.

• Lead, coach, and develop maintenance technicians by establishing engineering and maintenance standards, providing hands-on technical training, strengthening team capabilities, and promoting consistent safe work practices.

• Direct and prioritize preventive, predictive, corrective, and emergency maintenance activities based on equipment criticality, operational risk, business impact, regulatory requirements, and available resources.

• Develop and implement reliability-centered maintenance strategies designed to increase equipment availability, extend asset life, and reduce unplanned downtime.

• Provide technical leadership for critical infrastructure, including HVAC systems, electrical distribution, generators, UPS systems, fire protection and life safety systems, building automation systems, and data center support equipment.

• Lead facility maintenance, infrastructure, renovation, and capital improvement projects from concept through completion, including business justification, scope development, budgeting, technical review, contractor coordination, execution, commissioning, closeout, and stakeholder communication.

• Provide technical oversight of contractors, vendors, and service providers. Establish performance expectations, monitor service levels, resolve technical issues, validate completed work, manage costs, and ensure compliance with company standards, applicable codes, and regulatory requirements.

• Partner with the Facility Manager to develop operating and capital budgets, forecast maintenance expenditures, evaluate lifecycle costs and infrastructure risks, identify equipment replacement needs, and develop long-range capital plans.

• Serve as a subject matter expert for CMMS, asset management, business continuity, emergency response, and facility recovery activities.

• Drive continuous improvement across safety, equipment reliability, energy efficiency, maintenance effectiveness, technician productivity, CMMS/data quality, operating costs, and internal customer satisfaction.

• Maintain accurate maintenance and asset records and support timely completion of work orders, inspections, preventive maintenance activities, and compliance documentation.

• Support emergency response activities and provide technical leadership during equipment failures, infrastructure disruptions, and facility recovery efforts.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring strong experience in facility engineering, maintenance, or critical infrastructure operations, with demonstrated technical knowledge of complex commercial or mission-critical building systems.

Candidates should have:

• Strong technical knowledge of HVAC, electrical distribution, plumbing, building automation/controls, life safety, and related facility infrastructure.

• Experience supporting generators, UPS systems, emergency power, and other critical facility systems.

• Demonstrated experience troubleshooting complex equipment failures and performing root-cause analysis.

• Experience leading preventive, predictive, corrective, and emergency maintenance programs.

• Experience leading or mentoring maintenance technicians and establishing consistent maintenance and safety standards.

• Experience managing contractors, vendors, and technical service providers.

• Experience managing facility infrastructure, renovation, maintenance, or capital improvement projects.

• Working knowledge of CMMS and asset management practices.

• Strong understanding of facility safety practices, applicable codes, regulatory requirements, and maintenance documentation.

• Ability to prioritize competing maintenance and project requirements based on safety, risk, equipment criticality, and business impact.

• Strong communication, problem-solving, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.

Key Deliverables

This position will provide day-to-day leadership and oversight of facility engineering and maintenance operations for the Lake Forest headquarters and associated infrastructure. Key outcomes include:

• Maintaining safe, reliable, and compliant facility operations.

• Improving equipment reliability and reducing unplanned downtime.

• Completing preventive and corrective maintenance activities on schedule.

• Maintaining effective oversight of contractors and service providers.

• Supporting regulatory, safety, and operational compliance requirements.

• Improving maintenance planning, work-order execution, and asset data quality.

• Identifying infrastructure risks and long-term equipment replacement needs.

• Executing assigned facility and capital projects within approved scope, schedule, and budget.

Working Relationships

This position reports to the Facility Manager and works closely with Facilities Operations, Engineering, Data Center Operations, Security, Environmental Health & Safety, contractors, vendors, service providers, and building occupants.

• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Flexible spending accounts
• Life insurance
• Retirement plan