Overview:
Reports to: Site Manager
To lead and transform the engineering function within a complex food manufacturing unit, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement. This role is pivotal in bridging engineering with production and other key functions, ensuring equipment reliability, team engagement, and operational excellence.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership & People Development
Lead a diverse team of engineers, supervisors, and support roles with a focus on coaching, mentoring, and performance development.
Build a culture of accountability, ownership, and pride in engineering outcomes.
Develop and implement structured training plans, ensuring skills are embedded and applied.
Champion employee engagement, wellbeing, and career progression.
Operational Excellence
Drive equipment uptime and reliability across a number of complex production lines.
Implement equipment specialisation strategies to reduce cognitive overload and improve technical depth.
Collaborate with CI engineers to embed lean principles and continuous improvement.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Act as a key liaison between engineering, production, quality, hygiene, food safety, and commercial teams.
Establish cross-functional squads to own line-level performance and problem-solving.
Facilitate regular communication forums (e.g., huddles, reviews) to align priorities and share insights.
Strategic Planning & Execution
Develop and execute a roadmap for engineering transformation aligned with business goals.
Embrace visual management tools to track downtime, root causes, and corrective actions.
Lead change management initiatives across multi functions.
ROLE QUALIFICATION & SKILLS:
Key Skills & Experience
Proven leadership experience within a manufacturing or FMCG environment.
Ability to influence cultural change and drive cross-functional collaboration.
Strong people management skills with a track record of building high-performing teams.
Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
Familiarity with lean manufacturing, TPM, or similar methodologies.
Desirable Attributes
Empathetic and approachable leadership style.
Strategic thinker with hands-on problem-solving capability.
Passion for developing others and fostering a learning culture.
Comfortable navigating employee culture and driving modernisation.
Our Referral Incentive:
Due to the high amount of interest that we receive for each of our roles unfortunately we cannot respond to each application individually, therefore if you do not hear back from us you have not been shortlisted for this role. Please continue to check our website for any other roles which may be of interest.We offer a £500 referral if you introduce someone we place - see our website for details We regret that this client is not prepared to sponsor work permit or work permit transfer applications. Candidates must be able to prove their eligibility to work in the UK