Job Description

This is What You'll Actually Do
As Site Engineering Lead, you will:

• Lead, motivate, and develop the site engineering team, setting clear expectations and role-modelling the highest standards of health & safety, food safety, quality, behaviour, and performance
• Take full ownership of the engineering and maintenance strategy, ensuring all manufacturing assets and infrastructure are maintained to the highest standards of safety, food integrity, quality, and reliability
• Deliver a robust Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programme, driving high compliance to maximise uptime, asset reliability, and ongoing food safety and quality assurance
• Analyse downtime and performance data, ensuring effective root cause analysis and implementation of sustainable, long-term "100-year fixes" that eliminate safety, food safety, and quality risks
• Act as a key contributor to site CAPEX planning and delivery, owning engineering-led capital projects from justification through to execution, ensuring designs meet H&S, food safety, hygiene, and quality standards by design
• Manage third-party contractors and suppliers, ensuring all work is delivered safely, on time, within budget, and fully compliant with site safety, food safety, hygiene, and quality standards
• Own and control the engineering budget, rigorously challenging spend while ensuring investment supports safe operations, food safety compliance, and quality performance
• Develop engineering capability through structured performance management, succession planning, apprenticeship programmes, and targeted development plans, with a strong focus on safe systems of work and food safety awareness
• Work cross-functionally as part of the Site Leadership Team, partnering with Operations, Technical, Quality, and Health & Safety to deliver site performance, compliance, and continuous improvement objectives
• Champion continuous improvement initiatives, providing strong technical leadership to drive improvements in safety performance, food safety, quality, efficiency, and reliability
• Work closely with the Health & Safety Manager to implement, audit, and continuously improve statutory compliance, risk assessments, and safety management systems
• Ensure full compliance with all company policies and food safety, hygiene, quality, legal, and statutory requirements, maintaining audit readiness at all times
• Define, embed, and continuously improve best-practice engineering processes, systems, and standards that protect people, products, and the brand
• Report engineering performance, KPIs, risks, and compliance status to Senior Management in a clear, accurate, and timely manner, with particular focus on H&S, food safety, and quality risks.

Ideally, This is You!
Essential:

• Degree-qualified in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent NVQ Level 7
• Proven experience in a senior engineering management role within the food manufacturing sector.
• Strong leadership capability with experience managing, developing, and coaching high-performing teams.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills at all levels of the organisation.
• Results-driven with the ability to plan, prioritise, and deliver against operational and project deadlines.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience managing budgets and controlling costs.
• Confident using data, KPIs, and performance metrics to drive improvement.
• Competent in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)

Desirable:

• Food Hygiene, HACCP, and Allergen Awareness qualifications.NEBOSH certification.
• Project management experience.
• Working knowledge of continuous improvement tools and asset optimisation techniques.
• Experience producing detailed engineering and process risk assessments.

Skills Required