Pizza Automation Technician

Pizza Automation Technician - Automated Frozen Pizza Packaging Line Franklin Park, IL | $29-$33/hour | Direct Hire | On-Site

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Salary: $29 - $33 per hour

A bit about us:

Founded more than five decades ago and based in Franklin Park, Illinois, we are a family-owned food manufacturer producing Greek, Mediterranean, private-label, and co-manufactured products for restaurant, retail, and national-brand customers. Our 200,000-square-foot facility operates under USDA and FDA oversight and maintains SQF Level 2, HACCP, and certified Halal programs. This position supports our highly automated frozen pizza topping line, where pizzas are topped, cryogenically frozen, wrapped, cartoned, inspected, and prepared for palletizing.

Why join us?

• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision eligibility after 30 days
• 401(k): Eligibility after one year
• Generous PTO: Accrues from day one, with up to 10 days annually at hire and up to 15 days after three years
• Paid Holidays: Eligibility after 30 days
• Specialized Automation Experience: Work with PLC controls, industrial electrical systems, advanced packaging machinery, inspection equipment, and cryogenic freezing technology
• Career Growth: Substantial performance-based raises are available to employees who earn them
• Stable Schedule: Monday through Friday, plus Saturdays when production runs
• Direct Hire: Join a stable, family-owned food manufacturer with two dedicated technician positions supporting the pizza line

Job Details

Key Responsibilities and Duties

• Maintain, troubleshoot, repair, and replace automation components on an automated frozen pizza topping and packaging line.
• Diagnose electrical problems involving 480V three-phase, 240V, and 24V control circuits.
• Use schematics, meters, PLC logic, I/O states, fault screens, interlocks, and safety circuits to identify equipment failures.
• Troubleshoot PLC-controlled equipment beyond basic HMI fault monitoring.
• Maintain VFDs, servos, servo drives, encoders, sensors, photo eyes, relays, contactors, overloads, and control panels.
• Service automatic shrink wrappers and heat tunnels, including film-path setup, changeovers, rollers, needles, film-height settings, static control, sensors, and valves.
• Maintain cartoners, indexers, automatic case erectors, conveyors, and transfer systems.
• Perform chain tensioning, lubrication, link repair, guide alignment, timing adjustments, and belt tracking.
• Service inkjet date coders, including ink systems, printheads, alignment, cleaning, and jam recovery.
• Maintain hot-melt glue systems, including temperature controls, nozzles, filters, and hoses.
• Support metal detectors and checkweighers through settings management, program backups, reject-system maintenance, belt tracking, calibration support, and coordination with Quality Assurance.
• Perform condition checks and safe first-response assessments on the liquid-nitrogen freezing tunnel, oxygen monitor, exhaust system, belt, headers, and nozzles.
• Protect sensors, motors, panels, and controls before washdown and troubleshoot moisture-related failures following sanitation.
• Perform preventive maintenance and document equipment usage, repairs, replaced parts, settings changes, and root causes.
• Perform millwright-level build-up, tear-down, alignment, and repair of heavy industrial machinery.
• Troubleshoot chain drives, pneumatics, compressed-air systems, motors, and other mechanical equipment.
• Provide startup-through-close support for the pizza production line and assist with facility maintenance when the line does not require attention.
• Follow lockout/tagout, electrical safety, GMP, food-safety, sanitation, and inspection-equipment requirements.
• Communicate recurring problems, equipment risks, and incomplete work to the other technician or Plant Engineer.
• Work closely with Production, Quality Assurance, Sanitation, Warehouse, vendors, auditors, and federal inspectors.

Qualifications Needed

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, robotics, or a related field preferred.
• Relevant technical-school, trade-school, apprenticeship, OEM, military, industrial maintenance, mechatronics, electrical, or controls training may substitute for a degree.
• Minimum three years of directly relevant, hands-on industrial manufacturing maintenance experience.
• Automation maintenance experience within a production environment.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting 480V three-phase, 240V, and 24V electrical systems.
• Ability to safely use meters, read electrical schematics, and troubleshoot motors, contactors, overloads, relays, sensors, panels, and control circuits.
• Ability to read PLC logic and I/O and explain how a PLC or controls failure was diagnosed.
• Experience maintaining heavy industrial machinery, including equipment build-up, tear-down, alignment, and repair.
• Experience with chain drives, pneumatics, and compressed-air systems.
• Strong packaging machinery experience, preferably involving at least three of the following:
• Shrink wrappers
• Heat tunnels
• Cartoners
• Case erectors
• Hot-melt glue systems
• Inkjet coders
• Checkweighers
• Metal detectors
• Experience installing, maintaining, troubleshooting, and replacing VFDs, servos, servo drives, encoders, sensors, photo eyes, and related automation components.
• Lockout/tagout and industrial electrical-safety experience required.
• Food-manufacturing experience involving GMP, HACCP, SQF, sanitation, washdown, or quality requirements strongly preferred.
• Bilingual English and Spanish strongly preferred.
• Ability to lift 50 pounds unassisted, climb ladders, work from mezzanines, and remain on your feet for extended periods.
• Ability to work an eight-hour shift in a production room maintained at approximately 40F, with periodic exposure to temperatures as low as -10F.
• Willingness to complete a background check, reference verification, drug test, and E-Verify process.
• Ability to comply with food-plant PPE, footwear, jewelry, and mobile-phone restrictions.

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