Manager of Landfill Fleet & Heavy Equipment Maintenance

Overview

Interstate Waste Services (IWS) is a leading, vertically integrated provider of solid waste, recycling, and environmental services across the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut markets, with a rail-served landfill in Ohio.

Founded in 1998, IWS has grown through strategic acquisitions while maintaining the values of a family-run business. Our success is driven by disciplined execution, safety leadership, and a relentless focus on asset reliability and operational uptime.

Essential Job Summary:

The Landfill Maintenance Manager is responsible for leading all aspects of preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance for the landfill's mobile equipment fleet, support vehicles, maintenance shop, and related operational assets. This position is accountable for maximizing equipment availability, minimizing downtime, ensuring safe work practices, supporting environmental and regulatory compliance, and managing maintenance resources in a cost-effective manner.

The Landfill Maintenance Manager oversees maintenance technicians and support personnel, directs maintenance planning and scheduling, manages parts and vendor relationships, administers maintenance budgets, and develops asset lifecycle strategies for landfill equipment operating in severe-duty conditions. This leader partners closely with landfill operations to ensure reliable performance of critical equipment necessary to maintain safe, efficient, and continuous site operations.

Essential Job Functions: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Other minor duties may be assigned.

• Lead, supervise, coach, and develop maintenance personnel, which may include heavy equipment mechanics, welders/fabricators, lube technicians, service technicians, and parts/inventory support staff.
• Establish daily and weekly maintenance priorities based on operational needs, equipment condition, safety risk, and production impact.
• Manage work order flow, labor allocation, shift coverage, emergency response, and shop productivity.
• Promote a culture of accountability, urgency, teamwork, professionalism, and safety throughout the maintenance organization.
• Support hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, and succession planning for maintenance employees.
• Oversee maintenance and repair of landfill and support equipment, including but not limited to: Landfill compactors, Dozers, Excavators, Articulated haul trucks, Water trucks, Semi tractors/trailers, Pumps, Light-duty vehicles, and other site support or specialty equipment
• Ensure all repairs are completed safely, correctly, and in a timely manner to support landfill operations.
• Provide technical direction for difficult diagnostics involving diesel engines, hydraulics, electrical systems, powertrain components, brakes, emission systems, and structural repairs.
• Coordinate field repairs and emergency breakdown response as needed to reduce equipment downtime.
• Ensure scheduled services, inspections, lubrication, oil changes, fluid sampling, undercarriage inspections, component tracking, and rebuild intervals are completed on time.
• Drive strong PM compliance and use maintenance data to reduce repeat failures and improve reliability.
• Incorporate predictive maintenance tools and practices where appropriate, including telematics, diagnostic software, oil analysis, and trend monitoring.
• Partner with operations to ensure operators complete daily pre-shift and post-shift inspections and report defects promptly.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• High school diploma or GED required; technical school or associate degree in diesel, heavy equipment, or industrial maintenance preferred.
• Minimum 5-7 years of heavy equipment maintenance experience, preferably in landfill, waste, construction, quarry, mining, recycling, or similarly severe-duty operations.
• Minimum 3 years of supervisory or management experience leading maintenance teams.
• Strong working knowledge of heavy equipment maintenance practices, diagnostics, and repair planning.
• Experience with diesel engines, hydraulic systems, electrical systems, powertrain systems, brakes, HVAC, welding, and fabrication.
• Experience using CMMS, fleet maintenance software, and diagnostic tools.
• Valid driver's license required; CDL preferred or ability to obtain if required by the operation.
• Strong organizational, communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, high-accountability operating environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a high volume solid waste landfill operation.
• Experience maintaining Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo, or similar heavy equipment.
• Knowledge of landfill compactors, dozers, loaders, excavators, haul trucks, and landfill support equipment.
• Experience with oil analysis, telematics, and predictive maintenance programs.
• Knowledge of DOT requirements as applicable to support fleet.
• Familiarity with lean maintenance, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement practices.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong technical knowledge of heavy mobile equipment operating in abrasive, high-contamination, severe-duty environments.
• Ability to build an effective team and maintain high standards of safety, repair quality, and urgency.
• Ability to analyze downtime trends, maintenance data, and cost drivers to improve performance.
• Strong financial and planning skills, including budget development and resource allocation.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technicians, operators, site leadership, vendors, and corporate support functions.
• Ability to balance immediate operational demands with disciplined preventive maintenance and long-term asset management.

Leadership Expectations

The Landfill Maintenance Manager is expected to:

• Operate with high ownership and accountability
• Lead with consistency, discipline, and professionalism

• Develop leaders - not just fix problems
• Serve as a stabilizing force during growth, acquisitions, and operational change
• Act as a trusted execution partner to Directors and Corporate Fleet Maintenance leadership

Additional Information

This job description is intended to be an accurate representation of the general functions of the job, rather than exhaustive list of duties, responsibilities, or experience. Other duties may be assigned, requested, or required. Aspects of the job may be altered without notice.

Interstate Waste Services provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Salary Range Minimum

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