APAC Regional Maintenance Reliability Manager

Knauf stands for opportunity. We know that opportunity looks different to each person, and we are proud that we see opportunity in everyone. 

This exciting role within the technical department could be the perfect next opportunity for you to build a unique career, in a values-led culture with a clear purpose of making tomorrow a home for all of us. 

We are a family-owned global manufacturer of construction materials and within our Group, our 43,500 team members in 90 countries across 320 sites provide a huge opportunity for anyone with ambition and energy. We value everyone's contribution equally and we ask that you bring your whole self to work, to enrich the business further, as together we achieve more in a safe and inclusive environment. 

In Asia Pacific, since the 1990s Knauf has been established as a leading and trusted brand for drywall products and system solutions. Today, with over 5,500 experienced, talented, and diversified people operating nearly 35 production facilities and offices across the region, coupled with an extensive expertise-backed sales and support network, our teams deliver the best of Knauf to our customers, while supporting positive changes to the industry and communities where we operate – in Australia, China, Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

Reporting intoProcess and Technology Director, we are searching for a team member to join us asAPAC Regional Maintenance Reliability Manager.

Can you say yes?

We’re looking for a hands-on Regional Maintenance Reliability Manager to drive maintenance excellence across our APAC manufacturing network. You’ll lead reliability and maintenance initiatives across multiple sites, improving asset performance, plant availability, safety, and cost efficiency while building strong maintenance capabilities and standardizing best practices.

It’s a role for someone who can combine strategic leadership with practical execution, work effectively across cultures and geographies, and deliver measurable improvements through strong collaboration with plant teams and the global maintenance community.

What you will be doing 
Based in Bangkok, you will lead maintenance reliability and continuous improvement initiatives across our APAC manufacturing network, working closely with plant teams and global stakeholders to improve asset performance, safety, operational efficiency, and maintenance excellence across multiple sites and countries.

Your responsibilities include:

1. Maintenance Strategy & Governance

• Define, deploy, and continuously improve the regional maintenance strategy, aligned with business objectives and production requirements.

• Establish and govern maintenance standards, policies, and procedures across APAC sites.

• Drive preventive, predictive, and reliability-based maintenance (RBM) implementation region wide.

• Ensure standardization of CMMS, maintenance KPIs, reporting, and asset management practices.

2. Asset Reliability & Performance

• Accountable for plant availability, equipment reliability, and maintenance performance KPIs across the region.

• Lead root cause analyses (RCA) for major failures and recurring losses; ensure corrective and preventive actions are implemented.

• Benchmark site performance internally and externally and deploy best practices and technical improvements across the region.

3. Safety, Compliance & Risk

• Ensure full compliance with HSE, statutory, and regulatory requirements

• Embed a strong safety culture in maintenance organizations, including contractor management and permit to work systems.

• Provide regional oversight for high-risk maintenance activities, audits, and incident follow up as required

4. People Development & Organization

• Provide functional leadership and coaching to Site Maintenance Managers and regional experts.

• Identify maintenance capability gaps and define training, upskilling, and succession plans.

• Build and lead a regional maintenance expert / process champion network and promote information sharing and facilitate cross functional projects and maintenance programs, projects, audits.

5. Cost Control & Budget Management

• Monitor and develop regional maintenance budgets, cost structures, and efficiency improvement plans.

• Drive cost optimization through spare parts rationalization, contractor strategy, reliability improvements, and CAPEX prioritization.

• Support business cases for equipment upgrades, replacements, and major overhauls.

6. Regional & Cross Functional Collaboration

• Act as regional maintenance authority on request for CAPEX projects, new lines, major shutdowns, and plant upgrades.

• Collaborate closely with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement, and HSE.

• Travel across APAC to support site performance, audits, capability development, and transformation initiatives.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Perform other duties and contribute to projects and initiatives as required to support strategic objectives and operational priorities of the Process and Technology department.

What we would love for you to have

Professional Experience

• More than 10 years’ experience in industrial, manufacturing, or maintenance environments.

• Proven background in heavy industry, process manufacturing, or continuous production operations.

• Experience as a Maintenance Manager in heavy industry is a strong advantage

• Regional or multi-site leadership experience is highly desirable.

• APAC exposure, including regulatory, cultural, and operational complexity, is an advantage.

Education and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or a related Engineering discipline or an equivalent qualification.

• Reliability or maintenance certifications, such as CMRP or equivalent, would be advantageous.

• Experience in Lean Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, and structured problem-solving methodologies is also desirable.

Skills, Competencies and Behaviours

• Strategic thinker with a strong execution capability.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across cultures, languages and organisational levels.

• Proven ability to lead across cultures and within matrix organisations.

• Experience collaborating with cross-functional and multicultural teams.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving and project management skills.

• Solid technical foundation in mechanical and electrical systems.

• Sound knowledge of reliability engineering and asset lifecycle management.

• Experience using CMMS and applying data-driven decision-making.

• Proficiency in data analysis and statistics, including maintenance systems and related software.

• High mobility and resilience in a regional role.

• Demonstrate a pragmatic and adaptable with the ability to tailor reliability improvement approaches to site maturity and operational capability.

• Willingness to travel regularly, including on-site work and extended stays where required.

• High levels of integrity, accountability, ownership and attention to detail.

• Self-motivated, organised and resilient, with the ability to remain calm under pressure, manage change effectively and deliver results.

Language Requirements

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Proficiency in additional languages spoken within the APAC region would be an advantage.

Work Environment and Travel

• This role combines office-based work with regular visits to manufacturing sites across the APAC. Extensive regional travel (approximately 25–50%), including occasional short-notice travel, is required.

What happens next?

Your application will be reviewed by our Hiring Team to determine if your experiences and skills are what we are looking for in the role. If you are, our Talent Acquisition representative will contact you promptly to arrange for next steps.