Principal Utilities Engineer

Principal Utilities Engineer

Location:

Hamble, Southampton, UK.

Working Hours:

Mon–Fri, 37.5 hours per week.

Cooper Vision is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of soft contact lenses with a presence in over 100 countries. The company improves the way people see each day, giving lens wearers freedom and confidence to move about their daily lives.

This role will have a direct, measurable impact on operational efficiency, cost control, sustainability performance, and site resilience. Annual utility expenditure at UKM exceeds $15 million; the role is expected to drive sustained improvements in energy and utility efficiency, reducing cost and emissions per lens on an ongoing basis. The role also strengthens utility resilience and enables future site capacity expansion to support business growth.

The Principal Utilities Engineer is responsible for the reliable provision, efficient operation, and continuous optimisation of all essential utility supplies supporting site infrastructure, plant and process equipment across Cooper Vision Manufacturing in the UK. The role improves and reports on reliability, efficiency and sustainability performance of utility systems, reducing demand through operational optimisation and target capital projects. Interventions drove measurable reductions in utility consumption and emissions per lens, supporting manufacturing performance, cost control and sustainability commitments.

• Maintain efficient, reliable provision of critical utilities such as water, electricity, and gas to plant and process equipment; monitor usage to keep it on plan for HVAC, compressed air, chilled water, and production process equipment.
• Develop strategies and lead actions to implement new or alternative technologies and ways of working that affect user behaviours, improving resilience, driving efficiency, and enabling future growth for UK Operations.
• Work closely with maintenance staff, engineers, environmental health and safety teams, production staff and management to educate and raise awareness of utility savings and usage, championing behaviours that support effective change and continuous improvement.
• Serve as the UKM Electrical duty holder and Senior Electrical Authority responsible for all aspects of electrical safety and compliance across UKM sites.
• Produce monthly reports on utility usage; report cost savings and efficiencies to finance, global facilities and sustainability groups, and provide monthly reports to Senior Management Team.
• Produce reports on utility usage to national agencies and trade bodies, ensuring compliance with ESOS obligations and maintaining Cooper Vision’s commitment to the climate change agreement.
• Collaborate with other site facility managers and principals across global operations to benchmark and deliver monthly reporting of project performance and metrics to VP level, supporting cost, sustainability and growth initiatives.
• Proactively identify and leverage industry trends, innovations, and challenges in sustainable practices, smart technologies and regulatory changes affecting utility operations to drive improvements in utility performance and sustainability.
• Drive change by engaging with GTIG, vendors and service providers to deliver continuous efficiency improvements through innovation and enhanced reliability across automation, plant and utilities.
• Provide coaching, mentoring and development to technical staff in utility competencies, and lead education across UK operations to promote safe and efficient utility provision and use.
• Ensure utility reliability, project delivery and compliance are monitored through executive-level KPIs including system uptime, energy efficiency, cost savings, regulatory compliance, and facility sustainability scores.

• Expected to travel between UKM sites in Hampshire regularly each week.
• Attendance off-site, including travel to seminars, conferences, trade shows and vendor sites, and benchmarking other facilities, approx. 3% of the year.
• Annual cross-site global facilities and/or global sustainability group meetings 2%.

• Experience…