Engineering Manager - Buxton
Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Engineering Manager is a senior leadership position and a key member of the Management Team. The role is accountable for driving continuous improvement in safety, health, environmental compliance, plant reliability, and cost performance across a 24/7 cement manufacturing operation.
You will hold responsibility for all engineering and maintenance activities - including electrical, mechanical, planning, scheduling, execution, reliability, shutdown management, and stores.
The ideal candidate will be experienced in preparing forecasts and engineering budgets, optimising maintenance efficiency, and leading large multidisciplinary teams. Experience within heavy industry or cement manufacturing is essential.
This role also oversees procurement alignment within engineering, ensuring cost efficiency, compliance, and effective resource allocation. Strong leadership skills, team development capability, and the ability to operate in a fast-paced, continuous production environment are critical.
Plant operations run 365 days a year, and the position requires flexibility, including potential night shifts, weekends, bank holidays, and on-call duties when required.
REPORTING STRUCTURE
Reports to: Plant Manager
Direct Reports (4-6):
Head of Electrical, Head of Mechanical, Execution Engineers, Reliability Engineer, Shutdown Manager, Planners
Indirect Reports (>30):
Inspectors, Craft Teams, Procurement/Stores Manager
Relationships:
Production Management, Shift Managers, Environmental, H&S, HR, Procurement, Finance, Quality/Optimisation, Technical Services, Central Functions, Contractors, Suppliers
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Health, Safety & Environment
- Drive a culture of zero harm, ensuring full compliance with company safety standards and the 16 Life Saving Rules.
- Lead by example, embedding a culture of strong safety behaviours and environmental excellence.
- Promote continuous improvement in SHE performance across all engineering functions.
Planning, Monitoring & Reporting
- Improve plant availability, reliability, and cost performance by implementing engineering and maintenance best practice across the site.
- Ensure strong cross-functional coordination to eliminate inefficiencies and share learning.
- Lead defect elimination through structured root cause analysis techniques (Pareto, RCFA, etc.).
- Manage and optimise the site CMMS to maximise data quality and decision-making capability.
- Partner with Purchasing to manage engineering working capital and oversee critical spares.
- Identify and adopt new condition monitoring technologies and maintenance improvement tools.
- Lead the full lifecycle of plant shutdowns, including planning, scheduling, execution, and review.
- Own engineering budgets, reporting, cost control, and alignment with financial targets.
- Act as change leader ensuring teams meet project deadlines, budgets, and adoption targets using effective coaching and communication techniques.
Leadership & People Management
- Foster a collaborative, high-performing team culture within the engineering and maintenance functions.
- Lead recruitment, retention, and succession planning activities.
- Coach and mentor direct reports to support capability development and high performance.
- Ensure performance reviews, appraisals, and personal development plans are completed and regularly reviewed for all team members.
- Handle employee relations issues in line with company policies and procedures.
KEY COMPETENCIES
- Day-to-day and strategic leadership of maintenance activities.
- Strong understanding of reliability metrics (MTBF, Reliability Factor, Performance Factor).
- Knowledge of SHE indicators (LTIs, MTCs, near misses).
- Familiarity with financial and organisational systems (SOX, SAP).
- Ability to drive operational and energy performance improvements.
QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
Essential Qualifications
- Engineering Degree or equivalent
- NEBOSH qualification
Desirable Qualifications
- HNC/HND/ILM/CMI or other management certification
- Training in root cause analysis techniques
Experience
- Senior-level experience within heavy engineering or industrial manufacturing (cement preferred).
- Proven leadership of engineering departments and budgets.
- Strong understanding of end-to-end manufacturing processes.
- Experience applying continuous improvement methodologies.
- Understanding of supporting engineering disciplines (e.g., electrical, mechanical, process control).
Essential Skills
- Strong CMMS capability and gen
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