Manufacturing Continuous Improvement Engineer

Location: Higher Walton

Job Title:

Manufacturing Continuous Improvement Engineer

Function:
Manufacturing & Maintenance Excellence

Department:
Group Reliability & Operational Excellence

Job Type: Permanent

Hours:

Monday to Friday, Days

Location:

Cheshire – Warrington area, South Bank of the River Mersey

Sector:
Consumer Manufacturing

Job Salary & Package:£50,000 – £55,000 base salary

Bonus up to £8,000

Exceptional pension and comprehensive benefits package

This is a newly created Continuous Improvement Engineering role, onsite, designed to transform maintenance and asset care performance across a high-value manufacturing site and wider group.
Drive performance improvements across a fast-paced factory environment.
You’ll lead and support continuous improvement initiatives that reduce downtime, waste, improve reliability, increase throughput, and strengthen maintenance and operational excellence performance.
Working closely with engineering, maintenance, and production teams, you’ll apply Lean and CI tools to improve planned downtime, reduce reactive maintenance, and embed best-practice ways of working on the shop floor.
You will lead manufacturing and maintenance improvement projects that modernise engineering systems, improve asset reliability, and drive a cultural shift away from reactive maintenance toward world-class planned and predictive maintenance.
You will work closely with engineering, maintenance, and operations teams to improve uptime, reduce breakdowns, and optimise planned downtime, using lean manufacturing, TPM, and reliability engineering tools.
While this is not a tools-on role, it is highly hands-on from a coaching, influencing, and delivery perspective.
With over £100m being invested in site assets, this role offers genuine autonomy and the opportunity to shape how maintenance excellence is delivered long-term.

Key Responsibilities – Continuous Improvement Engineer

Lead manufacturing and maintenance performance improvement projects, focused on reliability, availability, and asset care
Reduce downtime, losses, and inefficiencies across production assets
Improve planned maintenance effectiveness and asset reliability
Use Lean tools (5S, Kaizen, RCA, TPM, OEE) to drive sustainable improvements
Coach and support engineers and operators in CI methodologies
Use data, KPIs, and CMMS insights to identify and prioritise improvements
Improve planned maintenance effectiveness, reducing unplanned downtime and reactive maintenance hours
Develop and update engineering and maintenance systems, including CMMS optimisation and standardisation
Introduce and embed condition-based maintenance, RCA, and data-led decision-making tools
Define equipment criticality to prioritise asset care strategies based on safety, risk, and production impact
Drive continuous improvement initiatives using Lean, FMEA, TPM, and reliability engineering techniques
Lead and support root cause analysis on major failures and ensure corrective actions are embedded
Continuously update maintenance plans and schedules using learnings from failures and performance data
Deliver coaching  to engineers and operators on the shop floor, building capability in CI tools and best-practice maintenance
What We’re Looking For – Manufacturing Continuous Improvement Engineer

Apprentice-trained Engineer (NVQ Level 3 minimum); HNC/HND or Degree desirable within Manufacturing and Engineering
Strong background in manufacturing or process environments
Experience working on engineering and maintenance improvement initiatives
Strong understanding of maintenance systems, asset care, and reliability principles
Engineering background in a manufacturing or process environment
Strong understanding of continuous improvement and Lean principles
Experience working with maintenance and production teams
Confident influencing on the shop floor
Experience analysing maintenance data, KPIs, and equipment history
Working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, TPM, RCA, and CI tools
Experience working with maintenance-led computerised systems
Comfortable working autonomously in a developing, evolving function
Previous experience in a reliability or continuous improvement / manufacturing engineering  role is beneficial but not…