Location: Blackpool area
Salary: Circa £60,000 (DOE) + benefits
Shifts: Panama shift pattern (days & nights)
Due to sustained growth and fresh investment into our site and assets, we’re expanding our Engineering function and seeking a hands-on Shift Engineering Manager. This role blends front-line maintenance with people leadership: you’ll lead a multi-skilled team on shift while remaining close to the tools when needed to keep a fast-paced food manufacturing operation running safely, efficiently and to the highest quality standards.
Key Responsibilities:
* Lead, coach and develop a team of multi-skilled Engineers on shift, setting clear priorities and promoting a proactive H&S culture.
* Deliver effective front-line maintenance (reactive, corrective and preventative) across processing and packaging equipment, services and utilities.
* Drive asset care and reliability: own PPM schedules, improve MTBF/MTTR, and deliver sustainable root cause fixes through RCAs and CI tools.
* Coordinate shift handovers, workload planning and resource allocation to meet production plans and minimise downtime.
* Champion food safety, compliance and GMP; collaborate closely with Production, Quality and HSE to meet KPI targets.
* Support engineering projects and CAPEX activity linked to our recent investments, upgrades and line optimisation.
* Manage spares, contractors and documentation to ensure audit readiness and cost control.
About you:
* Time-served, apprentice-trained or HNC/HND (or equivalent) in Engineering (Electrical/Mechanical/Mechatronics).
* Proven experience in FMCG/food or a similarly fast-paced, high-OEE environment.
* Confident people leader on shifts—able to motivate, mentor and upskill engineers while maintaining a calm, solutions-first approach.
* Strong fault-finding skills across PLC-controlled machinery (Siemens/Allen-Bradley desirable), conveyors, packaging and process equipment.
* Sound understanding of PPM, reliability, and CI methodologies (5S, Kaizen, TPM, RCFA).
How to apply:
If you’re a hands-on engineering leader who thrives in a fast-moving food manufacturing environment, we’d love to hear from you.
Click Apply with your CV or contact us for a confidential discussion