Overview
Hart Process Services (HPS) is a growing multidisciplinary design consultancy with approximately 40 engineers and designers, specialising in:
* Process Engineering
* Process Safety
* Electrical, Control & Instrumentation (EC&I)
* Mechanical, Piping and Layout
* Validation
* Project Management
We support a wide variety of clients in the whisky distilling, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors. With around 30 active projects at any time, our typical design project values reach up to £3 million in fees.
HPS is headquartered at: Unit A10, The Embankment Business Park, Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN.
Job Summary
The EC&I Engineering Manager will lead the Electrical, Instrumentation & Control discipline across HPS. This dual-role position combines technical leadership and team management with a strategic commercial focus — supporting proposal development, client engagement, and the wider growth of the business.
You will be responsible for managing the EC&I department’s operations, developing talent, ensuring project delivery, and actively contributing to client satisfaction and commercial success.
In the early stages of the role, the EC&I Engineering Manager is expected to spend approximately 80% of their time on fee-earning project work. This will naturally be reviewed as the department and workload grow.
EC&I Department Management
* Leadership & Oversight:
* Line management for 4 EC&I engineers, 4 designers, and 1 apprentice designer.
* Weekly task alignment, workload balancing, and milestone tracking.
* Facilitate weekly 30-minute team meetings to assess progress and priorities.
* Conduct monthly one-to-one sessions and annual performance appraisals.
* Guide, mentor and support apprentices by providing regular feedback, and opportunities for skill development, ensuring alignment with both departmental goals and engineering standards.
* Project Alignment:
* Collaborate with Project Managers during project kick-off to align scope, resourcing, and deliverables.
* Assist project managers with identifying and mitigating project delivery risks.
* Ongoing support and oversight of EC&I resource deployment across projects.
* Technical Assurance & Design Governance:
* Implement and maintain HPS EC&I checking and approval procedures in line with company-wide technical assurance requirements.
* Act as EC&I discipline approver for defined deliverables, delegating checking responsibilities appropriately within the team.
* Ensure EC&I designs are consistently safe, compliant, and phase-appropriate across all projects.
* Escalate novel, high-risk, or safety-critical technical issues to the Technical Director.
* Planning & Reporting:
* Participate in weekly resource planning with the Operations Director and the Director of Projects.
* Attend quarterly management meetings to review departmental performance, inter-discipline coordination, and continuous improvement opportunities. Present departmental KPI’s, providing analysis of trends, opportunities, and risks.
* Performance Management:
* Define and track department-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
* Drive process improvements and maintain high-quality technical delivery.
* Recruitment & Growth:
* Support recruitment of EC&I personnel, including assessing technical competencies.
* Mentor and develop the team to build future leadership and technical expertise.
Culture
* Embrace and actively promote company values through collaboration, ethical behaviour and teamworking.
* Build trust with client teams to make HPS the partner of choice through project delivery excellence.
* Lead assigned projects from an EC&I perspective, overseeing engineering deliverables and quality.
* Recognises that EC&I professionals typically specialise in one or two disciplines and therefore must demonstrate a sound technical grounding and working understanding of core principles across their weaker EC&I areas.
* Able to competently review, challenge, and integrate Electrical, Instrumentation, and Control designs by understanding intent, limitations, and interfaces, even where not a subject-matter expert.
* Demonstrates sufficient cross-discipline technical awareness to identify risk, ensure design coherence, and make informed engineering decisions across the full EC&I scope.
* Holds a good working knowledge of hazardous area design (ATEX / BS EN 60079) sufficient to act as design authority, review compliance, and provide hands-on support where required.
* Demonstrates a sound understanding of functional safety to BS EN 61511, enabling effective oversight of safety lifecycle activities and informed technical decision-making.
* Has a strong appreciation of EC&I requirements on GMP projects, including design intent, documentation standards, and verification expectations.
* Attend weekly internal design reviews to report progress and identify technical or commercial risks.
* Provide guidance to designers and review technical outputs before submission.
* Lead external design reviews with clients to ensure alignment and satisfaction.
* Input into project planning: manhour estimation, scheduling, and cost reporting.
* Ensure all designs meet applicable UK, EU, and client-specific standards and regulations.
* Commercial and Business Development:
* Lead EC&I input on proposal development: attend client sites for initial sales meetings, contribute to scope definitions, and produce manhour estimates.
* Provide strategic input into business development efforts to win new work and retain existing clients.
* Identify and follow up additional opportunities emerging from ongoing projects
* Client Relationship Management
* Build and maintain long-term relationships with key clients, understanding their needs and aligning HPS services accordingly.
* Maintain strong client satisfaction throughout project delivery, ensuring effective communication and professional representation of HPS.
* Capture lessons learned across projects and implement improvement actions within the department.
* Foster and promote a culture of accountability, client focus, and commercial awareness throughout the team.
Skills & Experience
Essential skills and qualifications:
* Demonstrable experience leading and managing engineering teams.
* Proven ability to act as technical lead / design authority on EC&I projects.
* Degree-qualified in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
* Strong experience in EC&I engineering within process industries.
* Track record of successful multi-disciplinary project delivery.
* Ability to contribute to and review commercial proposals and client scope documents.
* Comfortable engaging with clients and internal stakeholders at all levels.
* Knowledge of relevant UK and EU design regulations and standards.
* Familiarity with project controls including scheduling, cost tracking, and reporting.
* Desirable skills and qualifications:
* Experience of functional safety design and good working knowledge of BS EN 61508 / 61511. TUV functional safety qualification or similar.
* Experience of ATEX hazardous area design and good working knowledge of BS EN 60079. CompEx Ex12 qualification or similar.
Working Conditions:
* Full-time position with occasional travel to project sites.
* Office based in Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN
* Flexibility in work hours may be required to accommodate deadlines and international time zones.
* Company Health shield provided
* Salary: £75,000 – £85,000 per annum (depending on experience)
* Package: Performance-related bonus, pension, flexible working, and progression opportunity within a growing consultancy.
Please direct any applications to careers@hart-ps.com
#J-18808-Ljbffr