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Assistant Engineering Manager

Protea Recruitment Ltd | Food | Drinks | FMCG Recruitment Partnernewtownards, northern ireland🇬🇧United KingdomPosted 8 Aug 2026

Quick Overview

Work Type
Hybrid
Level
Mid Senior

Job Description

Assistant Engineering Manager

Location: County Down


The Opportunity

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Assistant Engineering Manager to join a successful food manufacturing business.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious engineering professional to lead a skilled engineering team, improve equipment reliability and drive continuous improvement across a busy manufacturing site.

Working closely with the Operations team, you will play a key role in maximising plant performance, reducing downtime and delivering engineering projects.


Key Responsibilities

Leadership

  • Lead, coach and develop a team of engineers and technicians.
  • Conduct performance reviews and identify training needs.
  • Build a positive, high-performing engineering culture.

Engineering & Maintenance

  • Maximise equipment reliability and production uptime.
  • Manage planned, preventative and predictive maintenance.
  • Lead fault finding and root cause analysis.
  • Reduce downtime and improve engineering performance.
  • Ensure critical spare parts are available.
  • Manage engineering suppliers and negotiate costs.

Continuous Improvement

  • Drive improvements across plant performance.
  • Improve OEE, MTTR and maintenance efficiency.
  • Reduce energy consumption and operating costs.
  • Work closely with Production and Quality teams.
  • Support sustainability initiatives across the site.

Capital Projects

  • Identify opportunities for equipment improvements.
  • Support business cases for capital investment.
  • Manage projects from planning through to commissioning.
  • Deliver projects safely, on time and within budget.
  • Monitor project performance and return on investment.

Compliance

  • Ensure compliance with electrical safety legislation.
  • Maintain food safety and engineering standards.
  • Promote a strong health and safety culture.


About You

You'll be an experienced electrical engineering professional with previous leadership experience within a manufacturing environment.

You'll also have:

  • Strong electrical engineering knowledge.
  • Experience leading engineering teams.
  • Knowledge of planned and preventative maintenance.
  • Experience improving manufacturing performance.
  • Strong fault-finding and problem-solving skills.
  • Excellent communication and organisational skills.
  • Experience delivering engineering projects.
  • A continuous improvement mindset.


Food manufacturing experience would be advantageous, although candidates from other fast-paced manufacturing environments are also encouraged to apply.

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