The successful candidate will provide leadership to the engineering team, oversee maintenance and capital investment programmes, and work closely with cross-functional departments to support business objectives through engineering innovation and continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, develop, and mentor the engineering team, fostering a culture of safety, accountability, continuous improvement, and high performance.
- Develop and implement the site's engineering strategy, aligning engineering objectives with overall business goals.
- Ensure the safe, reliable, and efficient operation of all manufacturing equipment, utilities, and site infrastructure.
- Drive preventative, predictive, and reliability-centred maintenance strategies to maximise equipment availability and minimise downtime.
- Lead root cause investigations into equipment failures and operational issues, implementing robust corrective and preventative actions.
- Manage engineering budgets, controlling expenditure while identifying opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency improvements.
- Plan, manage, and deliver capital investment projects from concept through design, installation, commissioning, and handover.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, or other recognised improvement methodologies.
- Ensure compliance with all relevant health & safety, environmental, food safety, and engineering legislation and standards.
- Develop asset management strategies and ensure effective use of CMMS and maintenance planning systems.
- Oversee contractor management, ensuring all external engineering activities meet company safety and quality standards.
- Support the development and implementation of automation, digitalisation, and smart manufacturing initiatives where appropriate.
- Collaborate with Production, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations teams to improve manufacturing performance and achieve operational targets.
- Manage engineering resources effectively, including workforce planning, succession planning, recruitment, and skills development.
- Build strong relationships with equipment suppliers, contractors, and service providers to ensure value, quality, and reliability.
- Degree qualification in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
- Engineering leadership experience within food manufacturing or FMCG, or packaging, or another highly automated manufacturing environment.
- Proven experience managing engineering teams within a high-volume production environment.
- Strong knowledge of maintenance management, reliability engineering, asset care, and engineering best practices.
- Demonstrated success delivering capital investment projects from feasibility through commissioning.
- Experience managing engineering budgets and driving cost-effective engineering solutions.
- Strong understanding of machinery safety, utilities management, statutory compliance, and engineering risk management.
- Knowledge of CMMS systems and maintenance planning software.
- Familiarity with food safety and quality standards such as BRCGS, HACCP, or equivalent regulated manufacturing standards.
- Excellent leadership, communication, stakeholder management, and people development skills.
- Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capability with experience implementing continuous improvement methodologies.
- Opportunity to lead a high-performing engineering function within a progressive manufacturing organisation.
- A strategic leadership role with responsibility for engineering excellence, operational performance, and long-term site development.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Career development opportunities within a growing business
